


I Burn For You. (But You’re Someone Else’s Light)

by baeconandeggs



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-08 01:00:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6832429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeconandeggs/pseuds/baeconandeggs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fire Man meets Light Boy, but love stories are never that simple. Mistakes and blurry lines make things hard, but it makes the painting of life so much more beautiful in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Burn For You. (But You’re Someone Else’s Light)

**Author's Note:**

> Holy Cow! This ended up so much longer than I ever intended it to be! I hope people read it anyway >.

The rain fell hard on the street as unknowing pedestrians made their way through the streets. Baekhyun watched them from his windowsill where he sat playing with a ball of light. He passed the ball between his fingers, careful not to look directly at it, and then tossed it up just to catch it again. The window was closed, but the blinds were open. If one of those unknowing pedestrians were to take a moment to look up from their dreary path, they would see this strange boy with this strange ball of light. Then the unknowing pedestrian would become an all too knowing pedestrian. 

“Baekhyun!” A voice chastised. It was Chen, a friend of Baekhyun’s who not only knew about Baekhyun’s strange ability but also had a similar power except with control over lightning.

“Yeah sorry. Let’s crash man, I’m tired.” Baekhyun grabbed through the ball of light to make it dissipate, fading in the air; almost disappointed no one had looked up from the street and caught him. Chen gave him a sideways look but didn’t say anything. Chen did not technically live with Baekhyun but Baekhyun often felt like he did. Baekhyun barely owned the small flat that he stayed in. It was barely a 10-minute walk away from his job at the CD and record store, and the rent was minimal. He barely had any furniture, which seemed to fit him well. Baekhyun had only a mattress that lay pitifully on the floor, a desk with a chair, a mini refrigerator and a lamp. He ate all of his meals out, or he would simply eat leftovers that were in the fridge. 

“You know you really haven’t been yourself lately, Baek. I miss the bubbly outgoing Baekhyun.” Chen sighed before plopping himself onto Baekhyun’s mattress. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment before looking over to see that Baekhyun had begun looking out the window again. This time, his face was less somber and was far more confused and focused. Chen propped himself up on one arm.

“Found something, boy? Is there a pretty lady dog on the street?” Chen joked, attempting to lighten the mood.

“Do you think there are others like us? Others that can control stuff, maybe like fire?” Baekhyun responded, eyes still fixed on something outside the window that Chen could not see. Chen thought for a moment, formulating his answer carefully before responding. 

“I suppose it is definitely possible. Not only do I think there are others with powers but I bet there are lots. I mean you and I found each other somehow and we live in the same city so with that math there could be several in each city. That means there could even be millions. If that’s the case why limit the powers to just lightning and light?” Chen reasoned.

Chen started to think beyond the walls of Baekhyun’s room, and into imaginary rooms of little boys like he used to be, scared because they had just done something extraordinary. The thought reminded him of the dreams he had been having about a boy who could freeze things. An interesting power to have, and Chen bet that if it were real it would cause lots of problems for a clumsy boy. He once dreamed the boy was scared that he had just frozen his mother’s favorite potted plant and received quite a scolding for it.

“Are you asking because you see someone using fire?” Chen asked suddenly, just thinking of the possibility. He sat up straight, ready to dart over to the window should Baekhyun give him the word.

 

“I’m not sure… Whatever it was it’s over now.” Baekhyun’s posture relaxed, and his feet fell from the window, “Forget it, let’s just go to sleep now.” He padded his way over to the bed before he plopped down next to his best friend. Chen was disappointed but simply shrugged. Some things were meant to work themselves out he supposed. 

“Hey tomorrow, can I sleep here again? I doubt that guy will be out of my mom’s house.” Chen asked with faux confidence, not looking directly at Baekhyun. Baekhyun turned the lights off with a wave of his hand, and then rolled over in the bed sleepily.

“Dude you never need to ask to stay over, just come over whenever.” 

Chen sighed with relief. He usually just stayed over casually but recently his mom’s house has been a lot to handle. He wished he could buy his own place like Baekhyun but he didn’t have the money. 

“I still think you should zap the guy.” Baekhyun mumbled into his pillow, pulling the covers over his skinny form. 

“That would go against the moral code. Every super hero knows they don’t use their superpowers against their tragic back-story characters. That’s like, lesson one.” Chen joked, wishing he could fully believe to what he was saying. Baekhyun knew how much Chen hated his mom’s terrible boyfriend. Whenever Baekhyun saw them, Chen’s mom looked worse for wear, and the boyfriend always had one of those douche bag smirks on his face that looked far more possessive than loving. Baekhyun knew that Chen had a moral code of some sort that he liked to follow, but he also knew the reason behind it. If Chen didn’t set up these rules with himself, he would break all of them, and probably go berserk. Chen made himself a cage in his mind so that he wouldn’t be overcome by his power. Baekhyun often felt as though he selfishly kept Chen around since Chen was the only thing keeping him from going crazy, but it was phrases like these about Chen’s moral code that reminded him that Chen needed him just as much to stay sane. Without Baekhyun, Chen probably wouldn’t feel the need to keep up the moral code; there would be no reminder of better days and good things. They needed each other, supported each other, and helped one another to stay moving even when times were the roughest.

The boys weren’t particularly tired, but they were done talking and it was late. It seemed as though the night might go on forever. Despite the lateness of the night, pedestrians continued to walk, as though they were a programmed feature of the street. Black umbrellas and black cloaks simply walking mindlessly. There had been a figure that was unlike these unknowing pedestrians. A new neighbor, just across the street from Baekhyun had actually seen Baekhyun’s ball of light in the windowsill from his own window. Not just on this particular night, but on each night since he had moved in about 3 weeks before. That night was simply the first time he had tried to communicate back.

 

“What do you mean you don’t have it!?” An angry customer yelled at Baekhyun. He was looking for some obscure CD that Baekhyun had never heard of before, and Baekhyun knew the store didn’t carry. Baekhyun was trying to be patient with this customer, a middle aged man who looked like all he did was listen to this one band in his basement filled with rats, but Baekhyun hadn’t slept well the night before. Chen had come in really late smelling like alcohol and a little bit like blood. He had been in charge of cleaning off his drunken friend, and also tried to figure out whose blood it was but to no avail. He had enough on his plate, and he really didn’t need this customer yelling in his face.

“Sir, I do inventory every day and I know the names of every CD and artist in here. I have never run across any discs or music by anyone with a name even resembling ‘The Chicken Hackers’. If you would like to search around the store a little more please feel free.” Baekhyun answered as politely as possible. He felt how strained his smile was since his energy was running out.

“Oh you’re telling me to do your job? Absolutely not. I would like to speak to your manager.” The man crossed his arms aggressively and gave a smug expression. Baekhyun resisted the temptation to roll his eyes.

“Sure I will go get him right away.” Baekhyun said smugly before doing a little twirl. He turned back to the man who seemed rightfully confused.

“Hello, Jam Out CD’s manager speaking, is Baekhyun giving you a hard time? Oh I’m sorry, my sincerest apologies. I assure you as the manager here that we do not have that CD.” Baekhyun then pointed to his nametag that read quite clearly “Baekhyun (Manager)”. The man huffed at Baekhyun’s charade.

“That’s it, I will just take my business elsewhere, asshole.” The man stormed off and Baekhyun couldn’t feel more relieved. He sat on his stool behind the counter and let out a long sigh. Recently he had been in some kind of slump. Despite that very little had changed, he felt restless like he was missing something. First there was Chen’s recent late nights, not to mention the fact that Chen was practically living with Baekhyun now. Plus there was the mysterious fire neighbor. He had seen the fire more than once in the past couple of days and it was making him deadly curious. It was all he could think about in his free time. The likelihood that he would find Chen was already so slim. The chances of two people with secret powers running into each other seemed ridiculously low, so the fact that it could be happening again was just ludicrous. Surely there wasn’t a third of their kind, a whole new being with the ability to control fire. Although it would make sense, lightning and light held a lot of energy especially in heat. Baekhyun thought it would make sense that if there were a pattern, fire would follow it. 

The dinging of the bell on the door broke Baekhyun’s thoughts, and he put on his smiling face ready to greet the customer. The first thing Baekhyun noticed was that he was tall, and the second thing he noticed was that he was staring directly at Baekhyun. Now it wouldn’t have usually thrown Baekhyun off if someone were looking at him, but usually when people entered the store they looked at the merchandise first, checking out the CDs. People, especially in the modern age, didn’t just casually find themselves in CD and record stores anymore; they were always looking for something specific. In this case it seems this man was looking for Baekhyun specifically.

“Hello, how may I help you?” Baekhyun asked, trying to hide his nervousness.

“Well, I’m new to the neighborhood and was just surveying the area. I just sort of happened in here. Although while I am here, I do love music so I suppose I could get a CD.” The man responded. The depth of his voice shocked Baekhyun. He had never heard a voice so effortlessly deep and… sensual even, and the noise seemed to punch him right in the gut. 

“We don’t get a lot of new people here. Welcome to town! And as far as a CD goes, what kind of music do you like? I’d love to give you a recommendation, I rarely get the chance.” Baekhyun was proud of how composed he sounded considering how shaky he felt truly. 

“I’m a big fan of R&B really, and rock music. I’ll listen to anything actually.” The man scratched the back of his head, the only sign Baekhyun could catch that might mean he was nervous too. Baekhyun was smart. He may not have finished college yet (mostly because he couldn’t afford it), but he was intelligent nonetheless. This man was saying he was new around here, and lived in the area. This immediately made Baekhyun think about the fire person in the house across from him. That house was the only one he knew of that had been for sale in his area. Baekhyun didn’t really pay attention to real estate usually, but with his recent windowsill sittings he noticed the for sale sign being taken down.

“Well over on this wall are some R&B artists. We have things sorted first by genre and then by musicians. It’s not a perfect science though since so many bands and sounds can fit in more than one category.” Baekhyun explained, coming from behind the counter to give a mini tour to his only customer. 

“And over next to it are the Rock CDs, so the genres are in alphabetical order too. My personal favorite R&B is Nina Simone because she’s a classic but I feel like you might be into something more modern. Am I right?” Baekhyun was excited. He loved when he got to be creative with his job. Usually people knew what they wanted when they came in so it was a clean-cut grab-and-go type of interaction. This person was allowing Baekhyun to show off his expertise and he reveled in the opportunity.

“I love the classics, but yeah I’d probably rather something a little more modern.” The tall man replied. Baekhyun stopped in front of the R&B section and thought for a moment before picking up one of the CDs. 

“Not actually modern, but have you ever listened to Earth, Wind, and Fire? Great songs.” Baekhyun offered the CD with an innocent impression, but he was hoping to send some kind of message to the stranger. The stranger gave him an odd look but didn’t let on if he was catching Baekhyun’s message. 

“They seem a little old school for me…” The taller man waved off. Baekhyun put the CD back, and then quickly grabbed a different one. 

“Something much more modern then, how about Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys?” Baekhyun offered, trying not to smirk at his own wit. The man was definitely catching on this time, but still wasn’t completely sure.

“I’ve heard a lot of that one… Maybe I should get something from the rock category instead.” He moved quickly over to that section of CDs and Baekhyun followed him. Third time is the charm usually, so Baekhyun decided to make this his last attempt. 

“Let me see what we’ve got…” Baekhyun pondered over the CDs a moment before sliding one out from the middle, and holding it up pointedly in front of the stranger. 

“This one seems like it would fit you well.” 

The CD showed in big letters “Fireman (single) – The Cravats” and Baekhyun was internally screaming at the expression the stranger wore. His face moved slowly as he seemed to realize that Baekhyun had put it together.

“Wait… Are you tr-“

The bell rang at the front door and the stranger became very quiet.

“Hello! Looking for something specific?” Baekhyun’s smile was especially strained. He was so close to figuring out the stranger. He turned to look at the front door and saw a panting Chen. 

“Chen?” His smile was gone. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” Baekhyun put the CD down quickly and walked over to him.

“Talk to your customer. I’m going to hide in the back for a bit.” Chen dashed behind the counter and into the back area that held extra copies of CDs and a small bathroom for the employees. 

“Is he okay?” The stranger asked, confused and concerned. 

“Uh, yeah.” Baekhyun whipped around as he suddenly remembered the tall man was still there, “I think he’s alright. Anyway, uh, did you decide on anything?” Baekhyun was trying to compose himself back into manager mode. 

“I think I’ll come back again tomorrow and see.” The tall man said, obviously thrown off by the sudden entrance of Chen. Baekhyun wanted to kick himself because now he had let his chance to ask this guy subtly about his powers go away. 

“Can I get your name? I usually know the names of the customers.” Baekhyun lied. 

“Sure. I’m Chanyeol. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He went out the front door hurriedly. Baekhyun watched for the figure to completely be out of sight before turning their open sign around to closed. He then ran quickly back to find Chen. 

“Chen?” Baekhyun called out. 

“Yeah, right over h-“ The shout was cut off by the sound of Chen throwing up into the employee toilet. 

“Fucking hell.” Baekhyun cursed, opening the door to the small bathroom. Chen was keeled over the toilet and heaving. 

“What happened? Are you alright?” Baekhyun put a hand on Chen’s back to try and comfort him. 

“I went back home, Baek, that’s what happened.” Chen was shaking and upset. This kind of thing happened every so often if Chen went home. If something violent was going on then Chen usually reacted by throwing up. Usually it was outside of his mom’s house, or in Baekhyun’s bathroom at his house, but Chen had apparently come straight for Baekhyun today. 

“Hey it’s alright. He’s a shitty dude, and you’ll talk sense into your mom one of these days. You could give her one of those hotline numbers or something? I dunno.” Baekhyun was not the best supporter but he was doing his best. Chen reacted to this support positively and had stopped shaking so much.

“He’s the shittiest dude. My mom really knows how to pick ‘em.” Chen shuddered once more before his body seemed to relax. 

“You should just come live with me, okay? Tonight once everyone’s asleep just go grab some stuff you need and bring it to my place. You can help pay the rent and stuff, grab some food for us every so often, and you won’t have to deal with the shitty boyfriend. How does that sound?” Baekhyun had been meaning to offer this aloud to Chen for some time. It had always felt like an unspoken offer but Chen wasn’t the type to push for something he was unsure about. Baekhyun figured it would take offering it out loud for Chen to finally take him up on it. Chen nodded softly, looking as vulnerable as a child. Baekhyun felt an odd protective feeling wash over him and shook it off. 

“Sorry I interrupted you at work. I didn’t know what to do and I panicked.” Chen looked down right pitiful, and Baekhyun looked away from him. 

“It was no problem really. I think that customer might be the guy who controls fire. He said he’ll be back tomorrow so I’m gonna try and find out if it’s him or not.” Baekhyun changed the subject, and helped pull Chen back up to standing position. Chen flushed the toilet and then washed his face and hands, and gargled a good bit as well. Once he had washed up, he responded to Baekhyun.

“You think he’s Fire Man?” 

“Funny you should say that, I hinted at it by showing him the CD that said ‘Fire Man’ on it. I think he’s caught on. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of it tomorrow. “ Baekhyun laughed as he remembered his own resourcefulness. 

“You’re a cheeky little shit.” Chen chuckled. They both wondered if perhaps they were taking this whole thing a little too casually about this possible new superhuman find. The thing was that they didn’t have much they cared about; nothing to lose, a lot to gain. They were cynical, jaded, and loyal to just each other. If they gained a new super powered friend then that was great, but they weren’t too stressed about it either because they knew that if they didn’t make a new friend they had lost nothing. 

 

There was little adjustment needed to have Chen living with Baekhyun now. The main difference was just that there was more of Chen’s personal affects there than before. Baekhyun thought it was quite nice actually, to have a warm body in his bed all the time. He only had a few blankets, most of which had been accidentally left by the people who previously owned his space and had used it as storage. On the colder nights, Baekhyun and Chen would stay close to each other, and if any snuggling or cuddling took place then they never spoke about it and never referenced it. 

Chanyeol came back to the store a few times and each time would ask Baekhyun for CD recommendations and Baekhyun always gave him either fire or light themed music. It had become a game to both of them. One time Baekhyun had given him a CD called “Reflections” hoping that it would qualify under the light theme and Chanyeol had given Baekhyun a disappointed look, as though acknowledging that Baekhyun had lost the game they were playing.

“Barely.” Chanyeol had said, and Baekhyun just shrugged. 

“Like you could do better.” He had countered. 

The real shocker was when Chanyeol had asked Baekhyun out for dinner one night. It had come as a surprise and Baekhyun had such little socialization since he left school that he wasn’t exactly sure what to do.

“I don’t have fancy clothes.” Was his best response. 

Chen hadn’t been completely supportive of the idea, mostly because he felt he “should know Chanyeol better before his best friend was getting buddy-buddy with him” (Chen’s words exactly). Baekhyun went anyway and it was a nice time. Chanyeol made Baekhyun laugh a lot, and they even finally got to discuss the mysterious powers issue.

“I’m sure you’ve caught my theme by now, right?” Baekhyun brought up as he took a nice bite of the sandwich he had ordered. Chanyeol figured it would burden Baekhyun if he took him somewhere really nice so they settled for a sandwich shop that was a block or two away from the CD shop. It was casual, but still fun. 

“Oh yeah, I figured it out day one actually. I’m not an idiot.” Chanyeol laughed, opening up his chips bag loudly. 

“Oh yeah? Not an idiot? Then why haven’t you revealed yourself yet?” Baekhyun pushed.

“Revealed myself?”

“As,” dramatic pause and jazz hands, “Fire Man.” Baekhyun said sarcastically. 

“Well, I figured you already knew. Also, Fire Man, really?” Chanyeol gave a chastising tutting noise. 

“Chen came up with it actually.”

“Speaking of which, are you guys a thing? Like a romantic thing?” Chanyeol asked, giving a pointed look. 

“No. We live together though so I can see how that’s misleading. He doesn’t really have anywhere else to stay. We’re not dating though, so I am single and interested in men, which I’m guessing would have been your second question.” Baekhyun answered brashly. Chanyeol stuttered a bit at the blunt response but composed himself quickly. 

“Would Light Boy be open to advances from Fire Man?” Chanyeol asked with an odd eyebrow movement that had Baekhyun almost spitting out his drink. 

“Light Boy? Sounds kinda pervy.” Baekhyun pondered for a moment, purposefully avoiding Chanyeol’s question, mostly to be cheeky. 

“You can’t just shut me down like that, jeez.” Chanyeol sighed, stealing one of Baekhyun’s chips. Baekhyun defensively grabbed his chip bag to save it from the claws of Chanyeol. 

“I’m open to advances sure, you just gotta be ready to be shut down a bit. I’m not the boyfriend-type.” Baekhyun made a gagging face at the word boyfriend. He wasn’t usually one for relationships, but something felt different about Chanyeol and it made him feel willing to at least give it a shot. 

“I’ll woo you in no time. I’m naturally hot, as you are aware.” Chanyeol seemed proud of his terrible pun and used a hand to fix up his hair and he struck a modeling pose. Baekhyun rolled his eyes. 

“Well, as the expert, I can tell you’re not that bright.” 

“You got me good, are you always like that? So fiery?” Chanyeol asked, eyes open wide like they were sucking Baekhyun’s aura through the air. 

“Yes? And stop that with your eyes.”

“These are just my eyes.”

“Oh… Well then fine.”

“You’re ridiculous, Light Boy.” 

“That’s the stupidest name ever.”

“You called me Fire Man.”

“Touché.” 

Most of the pair’s interactions were like that, a constant repartee. They were constantly in one another’s space, taking each other’s things and returning them. It was like they were attracted to simply being around the other. Chanyeol was always hanging around the CD shop and Baekhyun found himself entertaining Chanyeol at his place every so often. It wasn’t until several weeks into their pseudo-relationship that Chen started to complain.

“You guys are so annoying.” Chen spoke up to Baekhyun on one of the rare nights Chanyeol wasn’t there.

“Hm?”

“You’re constantly over here and just talking so much, it’s never quiet. Plus I walked in on you guys making out one time and thought I was gonna be sick. Can’t you guys go over to his place and do that?” Chen groaned from his position on his back on the mattress. 

“We’ve only made out like twice you’re just unlucky.” Baekhyun stuck his tongue out at Chen. The comment did start Baekhyun’s thinking though.

“You’re right, we never go over to his place. Why do you think that is?” Baekhyun’s mind starting whirling and getting carried away. Chanyeol could be hiding something dangerous, like a weird collection of some sort. Or maybe he was a serial killer and the moment he was invited inside was the moment Baekhyun would die. It could also be that he has a wife or something and has been living a secret double life with Baekhyun. He could also b-

“Okay, whatever you’re thinking is not the reason.” Chen deadpanned, interrupting Baekhyun’s thoughts since he could read the panicked look on his face. 

“He’s probably not a murderer or anything if that’s what you were thinking. You really go overboard, Baek.” Chen sighed, closing his eyes.

“Well, I was just thinking of all the possible reasons why he wouldn’t invite me over.” Baekhyun defended stubbornly, pouting and crossing his arms.

“It could just be because you guys have always had here to go to, you didn’t need to go to his place. Talk to him, Baek, you do it all the time, it can’t be that hard to ask him if you can see his place… Unless you’re scared.” Chen opened his eyes, “Is that it? Have ya’ll been over here all the time because you’re scared to be alone with him?” 

“No you half-wit. I’m not scared of going over to his place I just hadn’t noticed we weren’t going before. Stop trying to play psychiatrist.” Baekhyun plopped down next to Chen on the bed, getting comfortable under the covers. 

So Baekhyun took Chen’s advice and decided to invite himself over to Chanyeol’s place a few days later. Chanyeol was accepting of the idea and even apologized for not having had him over before. 

“I’m an excellent cook. How about I make you dinner to say sorry?” Chanyeol offered. Baekhyun moved his head back and forth as if pondering the idea.

“I suppose. Don’t think you can sex me just because you fed me though.” Baekhyun teased. Chanyeol’s cheeks got red and he laughed with Baekhyun.

“So crude.”

 

Turns out Chanyeol hadn’t lied, and he was actually a pretty good cook. Baekhyun ate up the roasted chicken quickly, making obscene noises as he moaned about how delicious the food was. 

“You’ve gotta stop that.” Chanyeol was staring blankly at Baekhyun, having not taken a single bite of his food. Baekhyun had been so caught up in eating he was thrown off by Chanyeol’s voice and looked up from his plate quickly.

“Huh?”

“It sounds almost like you’re pleasuring yourself or something.” Chanyeol laughed. Baekhyun laughed as well, thinking to himself that Chanyeol’s laugh was contagious. Every time he saw Chanyeol smile he got this warm feeling in his stomach. Being with Chanyeol was the happiest he had been in a long time. He was feeling more like his old self. He would never admit it though.

“Your food is that good. I’m impressed, Fire Man.” Baekhyun pointed his fork in Chanyeol’s direction and gave a little wink.

“I told you I was a good cook, it’s your fault for not believing me.” Chanyeol shrugged, and began eating his own chicken. There was a comfortable silence for a minute before Chanyeol spoke up again.

“Baekhyun, I really like you.” Chanyeol confessed suddenly. Baekhyun felt his heartbeat quicken and his stomach dropped because he knew roughly where this was going. He had never been good at commitment and the thought of finalizing a relationship with someone was daunting. 

“Well I like you too. That’s why we make out and eat dinner together.” Baekhyun said lightheartedly, hoping in vain that the comment would somehow end the conversation.

“I know you don’t do relationships but I feel like we’re already in one. If I’m not around you I feel like I’m drawn toward where you are. I could be with you all day and never get tired of you. Even if you don’t say so, I know you feel the same.” Chanyeol’s expression was one of pure feeling and Baekhyun could practically feel the sincerity of his confession as if it were palpable. There was a long silence and Baekhyun felt like stone. He wasn’t freaked out. He was just having a lot of thoughts pass through his head at one time. Was Chanyeol right? Did Baekhyun ever think he would tire of Chanyeol? Could he pin himself down and actually be happy?

“That was kinda creepy I’m sorry.” Chanyeol quickly apologized when Baekhyun didn’t respond right away.

“I get it though… I know what you mean.” Baekhyun said quietly. Chanyeol beamed.

“So you’re willing to try? I can call you my boyfriend then?” Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun gave a small smile.

“Well I g-“

“BAEKHYUN!” Chen’s yell rang through the room. Baekhyun and Chanyeol both jumped in their seats from shock and their heads twisted towards the door. Chen had busted into the front door, interrupting their date. He was drenched, but there were also burn marks in his clothes. He looked paler than Baekhyun had ever seen and he was shaking where he stood as if his body was vibrating.

“Shit, Shit, shit shit shitshish-“ Chen was stuttering and he couldn’t get any whole words out. 

“Chen calm down, what happened?” Baekhyun got out of his chair, and put down his utensils, quickly making his way over to his friend. Chanyeol followed his motions, coming up right behind Baekhyun. 

“Fuck, Baekhyun, I fucked up. Shit. Baek, look, Chanyeol sorry, I didn’t mean- I… Baekhyun, I gotta go.” He could barely get any of his words out and he looked like he was going to vomit. Baekhyun put his hand on Chen’s forehead and could feel that he was burning up. 

“Chanyeol we’re gonna have to finish this another time. I’m going to take Chen home. I’ll see you.” Without even waiting for a response, Baekhyun practically picked Chen up and ran him across the street and into Baekhyun’s apartment. 

Upon their arrival, Chen starting dry heaving in the corner, apparently having had thrown up the contents of his stomach earlier. Baekhyun was in full panic mode, unsure of what to do. He had seen Chen upset, but never in such an extreme form. 

“Hey it’s alright Chen. I’m right here, it’s okay.” He said quickly and reached out to pull Chen’s head to his chest as they moved to sit on the bed. He rubbed the back of his head to try and soothe him, the parental nature in him coming out as Chen’s vulnerable nature also exposed itself.

“Baek I didn’t mean to-“ Chen was sobbing now, “He was gonna kill her! I was angry and-and everything, fuck, everything h-happened so fast.” Chen couldn’t continue because of his body-wracking sobs. The shaking hadn’t gone anyway either, and he was practically vibrating in Baekhyun’s hold. Baekhyun was starting to understand for the situation now.

“Shit, Chen, did you zap your mom’s boyfriend?” Baekhyun’s heart dropped as Chen slowly nodded. This was the thing Chen wanted the least, for his mom to have to find out about his powers this way. Now she would always be scared of him, and knowing this destroyed Chen. Chen had always kept keeping his powers a secret as top priority, simply so that way he wouldn’t have to face the judgment of his mother. Besides for Baekhyun, she was the only person who meant anything to him. Baekhyun knew Chen’s mother and he knew she would no longer face him now. She wasn’t one to mess with anything out of the ordinary. Chen was going to be on his own now.

“Hey, come here, come here.” Baekhyun pulled Chen up so he was basically in Baekhyun’s lap as they sat on the mattress. They faced each other, but Chen’s feet were behind Baekhyun, and his legs were on top of Baekhyun’s own. Chen sat in-between Baekhyun’s legs, which were crossed at the ankle behind Chen’s back. Baekhyun held Chen’s face to be level with his own.

“You’re not a monster. You’re not a villain. I know that’s what’s going through your head but it’s not true. He’s the bad guy, and you were helping your mom. Look, you’ve still got me, okay? Now pull yourself together! Come on Chen, pull yourself back together.” Baekhyun was looking fiercely into Chen’s slightly unfocused eyes. Baekhyun didn’t know how to deal with all this pouring emotion from Chen so his best solution was to try and snap him out of it. Chen took some deep shaky breaths and touched Baekhyun’s hands on his head to tell him to move them. Once Baekhyun removed his hands from Chen’s head, Chen took them into his own hands. Chen’s hands were ice cold. They remained like that for a few minutes as Chen continued to take deep shaky breaths with his eyes closed, squeezing Baekhyun’s hands every so often as a reminder he was still there. 

“Alright, now tell me exactly what happened.” Baekhyun said calmly, softly rubbing his thumbs on the back of Chen’s hands. Baekhyun wasn’t one for speeches or lots of comforting words, it was his actions that spoke for Baekhyun. Chen shook his head violently, but Baekhyun squeezed his hands reassuringly.

“You have to tell me what happened so I can help you get out of the mess you made.” His voice was steady despite his fluctuating heart rate. Chen winced at the word “mess” but responded.

“I… I went to a bar. I’ve gone there recently- I think you noticed.” He took a shaky breath. “I wanted to get drunk like usual, so I could stop thinking about everything-stop thinking about you, about powers, about a job, about my mom, but-but they were there together.” Chen opened his eyes for moment as he paused and Baekhyun gave him a supportive nod to signal him to continue. Chen closed his eyes again and continued, “I figured I should leave, you know, since I had moved out awhile ago, things were gonna be heated. But then h-he grabbed her. He’s done it before but not like this, and not in public.” Shaky breath, “He had a bottle in his hand and I knew he was gonna use it, I knew he was but I couldn’t let that happen, Baekhyun I couldn’t let him do it! I always run away but he was gonna really injure her! I had to do it! I had to!” Chen was practically screaming at the top of his lungs, and tears were falling down his face again. Baekhyun felt static in the air, and his hair started to stand on end.

“Shhhh! No, no, Chen! Relax! Fucking relax! There’s no need to bring a lightning bolt in here, okay? Hey, listen to me. Look at me, Look at me!” Baekhyun felt his heart rate skyrocket and he knew he was in trouble. Baekhyun tore his hands away from Chen’s and Chen’s eyes flew open. He looked right at Baekhyun with a pathetic, yet determined look on his face. 

“Now, listen to me, you have to listen to what I say. Stop charging. I don’t wanna be roasted, and you don’t wanna roast me. Finish telling me what happened. Then we’re gonna clean you up, okay?” Baekhyun instructed harshly. He felt as though he should be being nicer to Chen, kinder to him, but that wasn’t how Baekhyun was naturally, and definitely not how he was under pressure like this. Baekhyun’s hair slowly went back down, and the static feeling in the air faded.

“I got angry. Storm clouds starting forming inside the bar, everyone was panicking. I w-was tunneling though, I just saw that man. He had dropped the bottle but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t s-stop myself.” Chen sniffled, “Everyone was realizing it was me, that I was doing it. Then I zapped him. He fell to the ground but he was alive, I hadn’t hit him hard enough for him to not be. I wanted to zap him again Baekhyun, I really did, and I almost did. I saw my mother’s face though. She was terrified, and looked at me like I was the monster, like I was the one who was evil.” Chen had calmed down significantly and his hands sought out Baekhyun’s again. Baekhyun let his hands be taken. He was Chen’s only comfort.

“You’re not a monster, and you aren’t evil. They don’t understand us. They don’t know who we are. We are a team Chen, you and I.” In an uncharacteristic show of affection Baekhyun gave Chen a big hug, taking his hands away from Chen’s own so he cold wrap his arms around him. After a few seconds like this, Baekhyun picked up Chen in his arms and carried him to the bathroom.

“Brush your teeth, get all the bad taste out, I’ll get you new clothes.” Baekhyun felt a bit parental, bossing Chen around like that, but Chen really needed the instruction. Baekhyun found a t-shirt and shorts that seemed mostly not dirty and tossed them to Chen who had just finished brushing his teeth. Chen had calmed down significantly, but he had an odd aura about him; his entire being seemed affected by this recent event. Baekhyun noticed it but felt no need to point it out. This kind of thing would change anyone. The weird part was that Baekhyun was worried because now that Chen had broken his moral code. He wasn’t really sure what this would mean for Chen and his stance on using powers, but that could all be sorted out later. Chen caught the clothes but then pouted at Baekhyun, holding them out childishly. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Baekhyun rolled his eyes, annoyed at Chen silently asking him to help get dressed. Baekhyun thought it was silly but complied anyway. He gently rolled up the broken shirt Chen was wearing, and slipped it over Chen’s head and arms. 

“Surely you can do the rest.” Baekhyun prodded, feeling uncomfortably intimate with Chen all of the sudden. Chen bit his lip before reaching out to Baekhyun’s own shirt. The weird aura continued to get stronger, and Chen seemed to have lost his regular sensibilities altogether. Baekhyun had worn a button up shirt (one of the two he actually owned) to impress Chanyeol, and Chen was slowly unbuttoning it. Baekhyun let him do it, unsure of how he felt with the progression of things. His shirt hit the floor and joined Chen’s ruined one. Chen silently ran his hands up and down Baekhyun’s arms. Chen seemed desperate for the affection and the attention, and Baekhyun understood his need. 

“You’re always so good to me Baekhyun.” Chen sighed, eyes grazing over Baekhyun’s body. “You’re always there for me. You let me stay with you; we sleep in the same bed. Yet you date someone else? I mean I’ve never thought of dating you but we are so compatible. You’re just so nice to me, when no one else ever is.” There were tears in his eyes but Chen was determined not to let them fall. 

“You should really finish getting changed, Chen.” Baekhyun ignored Chen’s comments. Chen stubbornly continued though.

“Always leading me, helping me, taking me in, I want you to know I appreciate it. After what I did you’re the only one who means anything to me anymore. You’re all I have left.” Chen took a step toward Baekhyun, hands still mindlessly roaming over Baekhyun’s body even going to his torso.

“I know you appreciate it. We help each other out, it’s mutual.” Baekhyun said coldly, still not entirely understanding this turn of events. Chen was obviously trying to seduce Baekhyun, Baekhyun just couldn’t figure out why. Perhaps this sensual turn was like him getting drunk the previous nights; it was all a distraction. Baekhyun wanted to comfort Chen, and this might be what he needed. 

Baekhyun did like Chen, but their relationship had always been confusing. They had romantic times together but always brushed them off as nothing. They were friends but often a little more than that. Baekhyun can’t say honestly he never thought he would have sex with Chen, but the idea was so deep in his mind it felt like an impossibility. Now the time was presenting itself and Baekhyun found himself wanting to continue, wanting to be there for Chen like he had been always. Chen needed him and it felt good to be needed. He didn’t think he and Chen could ever be a couple, but tonight was a special circumstance. Baekhyun’s thought process was so complex though; there was no time to explain everything he was thinking to Chen. Baekhyun wasn’t good with his words, especially in situations like these, but maybe actions really could speak louder than words. 

Chen was the one who connected their lips, kissing hungrily, finally breaking the odd tension in the room. Baekhyun reciprocated and the two fought for dominance. Chen undid Baekhyun’s pants and shoved them to the ground without once separating from Baekhyun. Baekhyun and Chen were a whir of limbs as they stumbled back to the mattress in the room and Chen shimmied his own pants and underwear off. Chen then pushed Baekhyun to lie down and used his teeth to pull off Baekhyun’s underwear.

“Sexy.” Baekhyun breathed out as he lifted his hips to help Chen pull the garment down. He wasn’t sure exactly why he was doing this other than to give in to being a distraction for Chen. That, and sex had never meant much to Baekhyun. Chen and Baekhyun had been so close for so long, this didn’t feel wrong. He could use the relief anyway.

He did feel a pang of guilt as he thought about the recent development with Chanyeol, but shook off the thought as soon as it came to him. This would be a one-time thing and Chanyeol may not ever know. Chen and Baekhyun had never taken things to this level, but Baekhyun didn’t see the issue with letting things continue. It felt comfortable, and it was something he could do to finally help Chen somehow instead of just being harsh with him. 

His thoughts were interrupted by hot breath near his naked crotch. He groaned as Chen didn’t hesitate and took Baekhyun’s member into his mouth enthusiastically. It wasn’t a full on blowjob, but Chen lazily bobbed on Baekhyun’s cock, helping to harden him. Chen got off with a pop, and kissed Baekhyun chastely.

“I know you’ve got lube around here somewhere. You jerk off too often for you not to have any.” Chen huskily whispered in Baekhyun’s ear. Baekhyun scrambled from under Chen and ran to grab his container of lube from its spot in the bathroom. He tossed it to Chen.

“I resent that comment by the way.” Baekhyun responded cheekily. Their interactions were natural, and everything seemed so casual. They were joking like they always did, talking like they always did. Baekhyun was able to convince himself that this was nothing strangely out of the ordinary. 

“Bring that ass over here.” Chen slapped Baekhyun’s ass playfully, and Baekhyun smacked Chen’s hand. 

“We’re not playing this way, no way. You’re bottoming.” Baekhyun argued. He had done both positions but felt between him and Chen he was definitely the dominant one. 

“Yeah we’ll see.” Chen countered, pulling Baekhyun back down to the mattress and immediately pushing his tongue into his mouth. Baekhyun was surprised with the sudden rough assertion of dominance, but not altogether unpleased. 

Baekhyun had been busy focusing on Chen’s surprisingly amazing kissing skills and didn’t notice Chen’s missing hands until he felt a cold lubed finger near his asshole. The finger breached through the ring of muscles and Baekhyun gasped, pulling away from Chen’s mouth.

“Woah hey.” Baekhyun creaked out, expressing his uncertainty about the intrusion.

“Relax. It’ll feel good.” Chen smiled, and starting moving the finger experimentally. Baekhyun gasped again, but this time because of the sudden wave of pleasure that came from Chen’s ministrations. Chen’s mouth found its way to Baekhyun’s neck where he started to suck mercilessly. Baekhyun felt assaulted with all the new feelings. In no time a second lubed finger joined the first one and the stretch felt amazing. Chen seemed to be leaving one hickey for every finger he added.

“It’s been awhile, huh?” Chen laughed as he noticed Baekhyun’s panting. Chen crooked his fingers and the movement was met with a loud moan on behalf of Baekhyun.

“Fuck, Chen.” Baekhyun moaned. Chen hummed in response, feeling so much better than before. He was in control now. He had control over himself and over Baekhyun, and Baekhyun was enjoying himself. It was hard to feel like a monster when such a beautiful boy was moaning your name with so much need in his voice.

“I like when you’re loud like this.” Chen groaned in Baekhyun’s ear as he started scissoring Baekhyun. This was met with all kinds of incoherent noises, the best Baekhyun could do for words at the moment.

“Chen, oh my god. Keep going.” Baekhyun breathed, shocking himself at how much he actually enjoying bottoming for Chen. He ran his fingers through Chen’s hair and pulled him harshly toward his lips where they made out roughly. Soon, three fingers were breaching Baekhyun, and Baekhyun was riding them with reckless abandon. Chen enjoyed the feeling of power he had over Baekhyun, glad he was finally in charge and calling the shots instead of Baekhyun being the boss. It was nice to see Baekhyun unwinding at Chen’s fingers. 

“Need you, Chen. Oh God please.” Baekhyun pleaded, pulling away from Chen’s swollen lips. Chen sucked hard on Baekhyun’s neck in response, finishing his third hickey. Chen sat up so he could properly lube himself and line himself up.

“Ready?” Chen asked. Baekhyun nodded, already feeling empty at the loss of Chen’s fingers in his ass. Chen showed no mercy as he pushed in straight to the hilt. Baekhyun almost screamed in pain, but he held it in. Chen pulled out after a moment of letting Baekhyun adjust and then roughly pulled and pushed Baekhyun around so that he was on his hands and knees, ass on display for Chen.

“Fuck this is better than anything I could have imagined.” Chen moaned, pushing back into Baekhyun. Baekhyun moaned in response, thoughts unintelligible as Chen pistoned in and out of him. He liked the roughness, the neediness. They were no lovers, this was fucking, not love making. They were both lost in pleasure, and Chen grabbed Baekhyun’s hair and pulled back harshly. Baekhyun loved the feeling, and let out a choked groan. Chen let go quickly, preferring to keep his hands to steady Baekhyun’s hips. He kept slipping in and out of Baekhyun’s tight heat, angling to hit that special spot.

“Harder, fuck.” Baekhyun breathed.

“It’s almost like you want me to break you.” Chen chuckled darkly as he followed instructions and slammed even harder into Baekhyun. It only took a few more thrusts for Chen to really feel the heat coiling in his stomach. He reached a hand around to give attention to Baekhyun’s cock. After a few pulls they were both cumming simultaneously. They collapsed on the bed as they caught their breath. Baekhyun flipped around so his head wasn’t in the pillow, but then felt cum start sliding out of his ass.

“Oh gross. I gotta clean up.” Baekhyun groaned. Chen, who was panting heavily next to him, signaled with a hand motion that he would be there in a moment. Baekhyun awkwardly waddled his way to the bathroom to clean himself up. 

Baekhyun decided to run a shower, and he hopped into the warm water quickly, impatient to feel clean again. He thought again about Chanyeol, wondering if he should tell him about this. They were technically dating now, and Baekhyun wasn’t sure if this constituted as cheating. To be fair, Baekhyun hadn’t had sex with Chanyeol yet and he had known Chen longer, so was it really even cheating? Plus he hadn’t finished telling Chanyeol that they were boyfriends so they didn’t really have that label yet.

Baekhyun cursed aloud, mad at himself for even trying to excuse himself. He knew he should tell Chanyeol, he was just worried about the response. It wasn’t so much he regretted the sex as much as he regretted the timing. 

“You look amazing.” Chen marveled, inviting himself into the bathroom. Baekhyun motioned for Chen to come join him under the stream. Chen was quick to hop in. 

“I left some great marks on you.” Chen smirked, admiring his own handiwork. Baekhyun groaned and put his face in his hands.

“Ugh I forgot you did that. That’s not something easy to cover up if I wanna hide them from Chanyeol.” Baekhyun started thinking of ways he could possibly cover the marks up. Chen had a scowl on his face.

“Thinking of Chanyeol right after sex with me? A little disheartening.” Chen scoffed, reaching for the shampoo. 

“I mean, sorry. I did just basically tell him I’d be his boyfriend though, feels a little odd.” Baekhyun admitted. Chen gave him an odd look.

“You went exclusive with Fire Man? That’s unlike you.” Chen started lathering up Baekhyun’s head, putting himself under the stream so Baekhyun was out of it. They had done this before, but had never been naked. 

“I dunno. Felt right at the time. Obviously I’m already doing a shit job with the whole exclusive relationship thing though.” He laughed pithily. Chen switched their places to let Baekhyun return the shampooing favor while his shampoo washed out. 

“He got into a relationship with you, should have known he was signing up for a hard time.” Chen teased, “Didn’t know ya’ll had decided to be all romantic and exclusive though. Kinda went into this whole sex thing thinking you were good to go.”

“’Good to go’… You have such a way with words, Chen. Way to make me feel special.” Baekhyun said sarcastically, slapping him on the arm in frustration.

“You are special to me, Baekhyun, I mean it. If Chanyeol gives you a hard time you’ve got me to come back to, for whatever you need.” Chen made sure to look Baekhyun directly in the eyes for this. Chanyeol may be Baekhyun’s boyfriend, but Chen had his own feelings for Baekhyun. Baekhyun shied away from Chen’s gaze, choosing to swap their positions so Chen was back under the water again. 

“You know that you can’t leave our place now, right? Police are probably looking for you.” Baekhyun changed the subject completely. 

“Yeah… I figured… My mom probably knows I’m here though. What are we gonna do? If I stay here too long you’ll be in trouble too.” Chen was starting to panic as he thought about what he needed to do next. Baekhyun reached around Chen to turn the water off. They grabbed towels and walked back into the main room.

“Let’s camp out here until we figure it out, okay? The police will have to get a warrant or something before they can just bust in, or well I think so. But anyhow, they won’t be here tonight. Let’s sleep okay? I’m exhausted, my ass hurts, and my neck is throbbing.” Baekhyun complained. Chen nodded, agreeing with Baekhyun’s sentiments. 

“You’re right… Also, you’re welcome for the gifts.” Chen winked at Baekhyun, loving the angry red hickies against Baekhyun’s skin. Just looking at Baekhyun made Chen feel like everything was going to be all right. They threw on some boxers and then crawled into the bed. Chen snuggled up close to Baekhyun, basking in his warm presence. Baekhyun was hesitant about the post-sex snuggling, but gave in after a few minutes. He even became the big spoon for Chen, and wrapped his arms around his waist. Chen felt so secure and warm, he was sure Baekhyun’s power of light could work from inside out. He may have gone berserk, hurt someone, and be wanted by the police, but Baekhyun was there for him anyway, and he would always feel at home and safe in Baekhyun’s arms. 

 

Something was wrong and Baekhyun could feel it. He felt watched, but he thought he might just be paranoid. He walked down a different aisle of the grocery store, looking around to see if there was anything odd. He still didn’t find anything unusual but he could feel in his core that something was wrong. His panic rising, he walked quickly down a row, looking down every aisle of the store. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for but he felt like he would know once he saw it. 

Baekhyun hadn’t been to work for two days. He had been hiding out with Chen in his apartment trying to figure out what to do next now that Chen was likely wanted by the police. A stunt on the level of superhuman wasn’t just going to be ignored. They weren’t sure what their course of action would be but they knew they needed to figure it out soon. They wouldn’t be able to hide forever especially since Chen had chosen Baekhyun’s house as his hiding spot. It was predictable so they knew they needed to move elsewhere. Things were getting more and more uncomfortable as they stayed in one place. 

There was nothing unusual that caught Baekhyun’s eye in the store but he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. He decided to check out quickly, not even bothering to finish his shopping. He was fast walking home, continually checking behind him feeling crazy and paranoid. Baekhyun couldn’t see anything suspicious but it only made him feel more uncomfortable, as though he had an invisible stalker. He turned a dark corner on the way home and that’s when he heard a voice.

“Sir, stop where you are!” The voice commanded loudly. Baekhyun froze up and turned on his heel to see the source of the voice. A man wearing all black, just like every other unknowing pedestrian, took out a badge and showed it to Baekhyun.

“Are you following me?” Baekhyun questioned, his feelings of panic getting stronger. 

“Yes, and you’re a tough little fucker to follow let me tell you. Now, I just need to ask you a couple questions.” The officer stepped forward, getting closer to Baekhyun. Baekhyun instinctively took a step back. 

“Son I can’t hurt you, I don’t have that kind of legal ability.” The officer laughed lowly, “I just need to ask you a few questions about a friend of yours.”

The officer stepped forward again.

“I don’t have any friends.” Baekhyun responded, willing himself not to do anything stupid.

“Well that’s not true. I want to know if you know anything about where your friend Jongdae went? He also goes by Chen. Do you know where he is?” The officer asked getting ever closer to Baekhyun who suddenly felt like the air he was breathing was suffocating him.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you sure? I’ve heard you two were best friends, and he was always over at your house. Could I take a look in your house? That’s where you were headed, right?” The officer gave a fake friendly smile and Baekhyun felt his hands itch with the want to shoot light at this guy to get him away from Baekhyun.

“You don’t have a warrant.”

“You don’t know that.” The officer took an aggressive step forward with his hands moving toward Baekhyun as if to grab him. In an instinctive defensive reaction, Baekhyun put his hands up, dropping the groceries, and a large beam of light released itself from his hands and shot directly at the man. The man cried out in surprise, let out an agonizing yell before he stopped approaching and held his eyes, groaning in pain. Baekhyun’s eyes went wide as he realized what he had done. He quickly turned and ran as fast as he could. 

Baekhyun wasn’t thinking at all as he ran he was just feeling his feet on the ground and the tightness of his breath in his chest. He ended up unconsciously going straight to Chanyeol’s door. He hadn’t seen Chanyeol since he ditched that dinner a few nights before but he somehow was drawn there. He knocked on the door, knowing it was late at night and there was a possibility Chanyeol wouldn’t even answer. It was also likely that Chanyeol was mad at him for being gone for so long and would shut the door in his face. Baekhyun had a strong longing to see Chanyeol’s face, thinking it might calm his rapidly beating heart, and that outweighed all his other thoughts. His hands were shaking as he thought of all the explaining he needed to do for Chanyeol. His heart jumped to his throat as he heard the sound of the lock being undone.

“Look who decided to finally show their face again.” Chanyeol joked passive-aggressively as he opened the door. He was surprised when Baekhyun launched himself into the foyer. 

“Uh, everything alright?” Chanyeol asked, moving to turn on some lights, quickly adapting to the new situation.

“Man, so much has happened Chanyeol I don’t even know where to start. Chen fucked up and then I made a sketchy decision, and just now I kind of really fucked up. Chen zapped that shitty boyfriend, then we…” Baekhyun paused, wondering if he should tell Chanyeol about what happened between him and Chen. His initial thought was that it was his body and his life and Chanyeol had nothing to do with that. A voice in the back of his mind though told him that Chanyeol might leave him if he found out and that would break Baekhyun’s heart. He chose to avoid the topic altogether until a better time, “I think I just blinded a police officer.” Baekhyun stated. Chanyeol motioned for Baekhyun to come to where he had a mini living room set up past the foyer and next to the kitchen. They settled on the couch. 

“Okay, obviously you and Chen have gotten in some trouble. Did you come here to ask for my help?” Chanyeol asked, his eyes curious to learn the answers, searching deep in Baekhyun’s eyes for every piece of information. The look was full of love and it made Baekhyun’s heart flip in his chest. 

“Well, I don’t really know. I just sort of ended up here. Remember when you said you felt drawn to me? It was kinda like that I guess, I dunno.” Baekhyun started to mumble at the end of his sentence as he became shyer. He shook his head, and took a deep breath to gather his confidence.  
“I just really needed to see you.” He admitted. Chanyeol smiled warmly.  
“That’s nice to hear.” Chanyeol put his arm around Baekhyun, which made Baekhyun’s stomach do even more complicated gymnastics as he shifted between feelings of love for Chanyeol and guilt. 

“Well I have some news that’s not so good to hear.” Baekhyun mumbled quietly, suddenly feeling guilty about all the love he was receiving from Chanyeol.

“I’m guessing it has to do with the hickeys on your neck?” Chanyeol asked lightly, his voice and face suddenly unreadable.

“Fuck.” Baekhyun breathed, he forgot about those. His mind was reeling with how to respond, and all he could think about was the weight of Chanyeol’s arm still around him.

“Yeah, I noticed those when you came in. I’m just glad you said something first. Might’ve been more awkward if I had said something.” Chanyeol inhaled deeply, “Look, I know you said you’d struggle with the whole commitment thing and I know I said that was fine, so I shouldn’t be upset, but it does hurt.” He paused, “I really really like you Baekhyun, in fact, I love you Baekhyun. If you can never love me back the same way I need to know that now so I don’t keep hurting myself.”

“It wasn’t like that! No, Chanyeol, I… I think I love you too…” He trailed off for a moment at he realized the fact that he really did love Chanyeol. Chanyeol was his rock, his warmth, and it felt so natural to be with him. Baekhyun loved Chanyeol. It was hitting him hard, and it felt like a punch in the gut.

“I knew it was a bad idea, it’s just that Chen had just almost killed his mom’s boyfriend and emotions were high and I wanted to help him. I can do the commitment thing, for you, I can. I’m not perfect and I’m not a good boyfriend but if for some reason you like me anyway, I want to make the effort. You’re special to me and I don’t want to lose you.” Baekhyun sped through his words quickly and avoided eye contact with Chanyeol. It was silent for a moment and Baekhyun closed his eyes, both relieved that he had let all that off his chest, and nervous about the reaction still to come. 

“Did you come here first? Before Chen?” Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun responded with his eyes closed.

“Of course.”

“Come here then.” Chanyeol said, pulling Baekhyun’s chin towards his own to give him a deep loving kiss. Baekhyun could practically feel stress melting off of him as he gave into Chanyeol’s movements. They broke apart and smiled at each other. 

“Don’t expect me to be so romantic though.” Baekhyun pouted, quickly trying to go back to being his tough bratty self. 

“Oh you and your ego.” Chanyeol huffed, using the arm that rested around Baekhyun’s shoulder to bop him on the head softly.

“Now what was all that about a policeman? If it were super dangerous I’m guessing you would have done something by now about it.” Chanyeol laughed.

“Ah well, there is some real bad stuff going on that we need to talk about.” Baekhyun leaned into Chanyeol’s shoulder with a sigh. He knew that the situation with the police was serious but he couldn’t find it in himself to feel very anxious about it. He just felt warm and protected in Chanyeol’s hold. 

“Chen almost killed his mother’s boyfriend, the abusive one, and I definitely just blinded a policeman who was looking for me because I have a connection to Chen. Speaking of which, we should probably go check on him.” Baekhyun thought aloud, hoping Chen wasn’t too worried about him coming in late from shopping. 

“Finish telling me what’s up and we’ll go.” Chanyeol reasoned, also not to keen on seeing Chen considering that he and Baekhyun had so obviously gotten together.

“Okay, Chen’s got powers like me and you. He’s got control over lightning, he can just zap things. Also if he goes out in a storm it’s kinda crazy he can just be a human lightning pole and attracts lightning as if he’s fruit and lightning’s flies.” Baekhyun marveled, “Anyway, he’s not great at controlling it because lightning is not really the easiest thing to control since it’s so fast and volatile. When he gets angry he charges himself, like he’s building up his static or something unconsciously until he can create his own lightning bolt. I dunno exactly how it all works really. He’s not been doing well recently, lots of drinking, fighting with strangers, among other unpleasant things. It’s mostly because of his mom, she’s got this terrible abusive boyfriend and she shuts Chen out in order to be with him. It’s really fucked up actually. I mean a parent should choose their kid over a boyfriend right? That’s fucked up.” Baekhyun huffed angrily, thinking of the injustice Chen suffered. Chanyeol rubbed his arm soothingly, and the motion reminded Baekhyun to stay on task. 

“So Chen saw the two of them at a bar that night he burst in on us eating. He got angry, charged, and people were terrified of him. His mother looked at him like he was a monster, and Chen struck the boyfriend. He didn’t kill him, but Chen said he felt fully capable and ready to do so. I’m worried about him Chanyeol. I don’t know how to help him. That’s kind of why I slept with him. It really wasn’t about love or anything in the way I know you’ll think about it; it was about comfort for him. I don’t feel that way for Chen, not the way I feel for you. I’d much rather have sex with you. Now having said that, I can’t leave Chen by himself, he’s been my friend too long, and I owe him so much. I just don’t know what to do because now my place isn’t safe for us to stay at. I mean that police officer followed me and knew about Chen. I blinded him because I was scared, but it’s not like Chen and I are fit to battle an army.” Baekhyun was sitting up straight now, the stress reaching him a bit more. Chanyeol moved with him, removing his arm from around Baekhyun.

“You don’t have to keep reassuring me you love me, although I would also rather have sex with you.” Chanyeol chuckled softly, “I mean I appreciate it, I really do, you just don’t have to push so hard. I can feel it in the air. You practically bleed your sincerity when you talk to me. It’s adorable.” Chanyeol shifted so his elbows rested on his knees and his hands were clasped together. 

“Now, about the situation. You guys have really stepped in it here. I think we should go see Chen and talk about it but the police have definitely figured out at least a little of what’s going on by now. I’m not safe either now, I’ve got powers just like you two so it’s only a matter of time before they get me too. Plus, you guys are really my only friends since I came here. I moved because of similar reasons actually. I’ve been semi-nomadic just because I was trying to get away from rumors in each city that I was hiding something, that I was magic, sometimes people thought I was an arsonist. Now that I have you guys to relate to, I say we stick together, whatever we do.” Chanyeol revealed.

“You’ve just been moving place to place? Seems really lonely.” Baekhyun commented. Chanyeol gave a noncommittal shrug, sitting back comfortably in the couch. 

“So is that the best way to do this then? We all just move away?” Baekhyun asked. Chanyeol pondered the question for minute before giving his response.

“I don’t think it works well. You just end up lonely and isolated, which makes you more of a suspicious outsider and things just get worse faster at each place. I don’t think moving will solve much.” Chanyeol admitted. Baekhyun threw his hands up in frustration.

“We can’t move away, and we definitely can’t stay. So what are we supposed to do?” Baekhyun crossed his arms and tried to think of a possible solution. 

“Well… We could just go off radar completely? Go to the middle of nowhere, create a place for the three of us?” Chanyeol paused, “That would really suck though. We’d be quite lonely, and it would awkward between me and Chen, especially about you.” 

“We should really have this conversation with Chen. I’ll go gather some of my stuff, get Chen to do the same, I mean if it’s alright if we crash here for a bit? The police can probably figure out where I live pretty quickly but it might take longer to get to your place.” Baekhyun reasoned. Chanyeol nodded.

“Yeah that’s alright. Go grab your stuff with Chen. I’ll get a sleeping bag or two for you guys. You could always come snuggle in the bed with me if you’d like.” Chanyeol winked at Baekhyun who just rolled his eyes at his antics, but didn’t say no to the idea.

 

Chen was extremely relieved to see Baekhyun. Baekhyun was welcomed into the home with a toppling hug and lots of cursing.

“You had me so fucking scared!” Chen exclaimed, holding him tightly, “Where were you? Why don’t you have any groceries?”

Baekhyun then explained his confrontation with the policeman and what he and Chanyeol had discussed about how to deal with the situation. Chen’s face showed a full range of emotions, and Baekhyun was nervous as to his reaction to everything.

“You went straight to Chanyeol’s place? I mean, didn’t you think I was worried about you? And move? That sounds like a terrible idea, your job is here, our whole lives are here. We can’t just… leave.” Chen crossed his arms and his brow furrowed. Baekhyun sighed. He knew this process wasn’t going to be easy, but Chen seemed more argumentative that he thought.

“Well, first of all Chanyeol is my boyfriend now, and it’s not like I was thinking much when I was running away. I just sort of… ended up there, I dunno. Look, it’s not even about that. We have to go! We have to at least go stay with Chanyeol, the police could be on their way as we speak. Let’s gather our stuff, go to Chanyeol’s, and then figure out what to do next, alright?” Baekhyun put a comforting hand on Chen’s shoulder, trying to gain his support. 

“We can fight them off. We don’t need Chanyeol’s help. They already think we’re monsters, it won’t change anything if we just stay here and hold our ground and fight.” Chen’s voice was strained, and Baekhyun could tell he was distressed. Baekhyun gave him a sympathetic look.

“You and I both know that won’t work. We don’t want to have to hurt people. And if we do? Then what? We live in fear until they catch us like prey. I go back to work and fight off all my customers? Everywhere we go there will be new people to fight, we could never trust anyone again. We can’t stay here Chen, you know that.” Baekhyun said, “Now, let’s gather some stuff and get to Chanyeol’s.” 

Chen was silent as he gathered some of his things. They both knew they wouldn’t be coming back so they grabbed some clothes, toothbrush, their phones with chargers, and Baekhyun even grabbed some photos that he had pinned to the wall. 

Neither of them said a word as they got to Chanyeol’s front step. Baekhyun knocked, and when Chanyeol opened the door, Chen avoided eye contact. Baekhyun could feel the awkward tension in the air between the two of them and he felt guilty. It was really his fault for the awkwardness. Chanyeol kept a close watch on Chen’s movements especially when he was close to Baekhyun. 

“Hey Chen, how you feeling? Last I saw you, you seemed worse for wear.” Chanyeol commented, pulling some blankets from a closet.

“Doing good. Baekhyun took great care of me.” Chen said with a venomously casual tone. Baekhyun physically winced at the choice of wording. Chanyeol gave a forced smile.

“That’s my Baekhyun.” Chanyeol said, giving Baekhyun an unnecessarily deep kiss as a greeting.

“I don’t think this will be enough space for two people.” Chen said, ignoring the couple’s loving moment and referencing the blankets lying out on the couch. 

“It’s enough space for one though. Baekhyun will be with me.” Chanyeol gave another smile. Chen didn’t say anything, but gave Baekhyun a curious and pointed look. Baekhyun felt like he was going to faint because of all the uncomfortable interaction. His face was warm and this was honestly his worst nightmare. He knew he needed to face this though, have things out in the air in order to be able to help.

“Okay, enough you two. Let’s get some things straight. Chanyeol is my boyfriend. Chen, I love you, but you can’t be so possessive. You two are going to have to learn how to get along if we’re going to be stuck together for a while. Everyone knows I slept with Chen, so stop sidestepping it, please, you guys are killing me. Chanyeol has a right to be mad about it.” Baekhyun took a deep breath, “You mean a lot to me too Chen, I’m not throwing you away or anything extreme, so don’t misconstrue anything.”

Everything was quiet for a bit as everyone processed Baekhyun’s words. Chanyeol seemed calmed down a bit, which made Baekhyun happy. He reached out to grab Chanyeol’s hand, and made eye contact. 

“I’m sorry.” Baekhyun mouthed. Chanyeol gave a little smile.

“Me too.” He mouthed back. Baekhyun returned the smile before looking over to see if Chen had calmed down now too. Unfortunately, Chen was obviously not calm. Having been friends with Chen for a long time, Baekhyun could recognize certain moods in Chen, and this was not a good one. He was past angry. He was the kind of angry that could smile as he burned.

“Hey Chen, you alright?” Baekhyun asked. 

“Of course.” He gave a sarcastic sideways smile, “I just lost my best friend. Why wouldn’t I be?” Chen said. Baekhyun felt like someone had just squeezed his heart tightly, and the pressure wasn’t letting up.

“I-That’s not what-I wasn’t…” Baekhyun stuttered. Chanyeol stepped in, seeing Baekhyun upset.

“Hey, don’t be ridiculous. He was just explaining that we’re a romantic exclusive thing. That doesn’t mean dropping you at all.” Chanyeol pointed out. 

“Romantic exclusive thing? When you haven’t even fucked yet, but he’s fucked me? Yeah okay, real exclusive.” Chen was practically oozing with venom, and Baekhyun wanted to cry, “Do you know his sweet spots? Have you ever had him coming undone at your touch? Has he ever said your name in just the way that makes you feel like the only important thing in the whole world? No? Those things seem pretty romantic to me, and I’ve actually experienced them.” Chen spat. 

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll learn those things, as well as all kinds of things you’ll never know because he chose me, not you.” Chanyeol spat back. Baekhyun was shaking with emotion, and he could feel the temperature rising in the room as the two fought. 

“See? There it is again. You were chosen not me, you get everything, and I get everything taken away from me. Way to go. Ever since this stupid relationship got started I’ve been shafted to the side. I’d get drunk, beat up in fights, and Baekhyun barely even noticed but he had plenty of time for Chanyeol.“ Chen turned his attention to Baekhyun, “I guess you got what you needed out of me, huh? So now you can throw me to the side just keep your one love, Chanyeol. Is this how this is going to go? You play with fire. I burn for it. Now you get what you want. You can beg him to be fucked, give him all those touches and moans. Then you can ditch him right after. You are some kind of professional, Baekhyun. I thought we were friends, slut.” Chen held fire in his eyes and was looking directly at Baekhyun with hatred and betrayal. The last word broke something inside of Baekhyun and he launched at Chen. No one could stop him because he was moving almost as fast as light. Chen could response just as quickly, fast as lightning, but he allowed himself to be hit. Chanyeol was lost in their bright fighting, so shocked from the erupting violence that he was struck dumbfounded. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Baekhyun yelled at Chen after hitting him strongly in the stomach. Chen grunted at the impact, but smiled at Baekhyun.

“I got your attention at least.” Chen said pathetically. Baekhyun slapped him across the face. He then pulled Chen by his shirt and went into the kitchen. He created a bubble of light too bright for Chen to even open his eyes, and too bright for Chanyeol to leave the living room. 

“Take it back.” Baekhyun demanded. He was burning with anger. 

“I don’t want to! You can’t just leave me like this! You said you cared about me but you go back to him! I deserve you! I’ve been with you this whole time. Does that mean nothing to you?” Chen was sobbing now, collapsing to the floor of the kitchen, and covering his eyes with his arms. Baekhyun lessened the brightness of the room. 

“Chen you mean a lot to me. You’re my only friend, and I’m sorry we had sex, not because it wasn’t good, not because I don’t like you, but because it was something our relationship wasn’t supposed to have. I love Chanyeol. I know it’s fast, but I do. It doesn’t lessen the love I have for you, but it’s not the same love, Chen. I love you. I love Chanyeol. Please don’t take away one of the people I love by being like this.” Baekhyun was crying now too, and the brightness was slowly lowering in the room as he stopped concentrating on it. Chen was able to blink and look up at Baekhyun.

“But I love you more than a friend. You’re the only person I have left.” Chen’s voice was vulnerable, and Baekhyun felt like Chen had just handed him the small fragile fragment of a heart that was all Chen had left. Baekhyun had to be careful not to crush it in his hold.

“I love you too Chen. I will never leave you. If you make me pick though, I will pick Chanyeol. Don’t make me do that to you. You know it will be your own fault, you knew this was happening.” The light Baekhyun had produced was all gone, and Baekhyun moved to wrap Chen in his arms. Chen sobbed profusely into Baekhyun’s shoulder. 

“I’m a monster. A real monster. My mother was right, I’m a monster. I was a monster to you Baekhyun. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I almost killed someone. I almost lost you. What’s wrong with me? Baek, I’m so sorry. Fuck, I fucked up so bad.” Chen had a constant stream of words as he cried, and Baekhyun just soaked it all up. 

“There, there. I accept your apology. There’s been a lot going on. You need to apologize to Chanyeol too though.” Baekhyun guided, pulling Chen up. Chen sniffled, trying to stop his sobbing. He nodded, acknowledging that Baekhyun was right. They walked into the living room where Chanyeol had been standing dumbfounded for a few minutes. He shook his head and brought himself back into reality once the two of them walked in from the kitchen. 

“Chanyeol, I’m really fucking sorry.” Chen said, sniffling at the end of his sentence, “Baekhyun really loves you. He even told me so the same night we… got together. I’m sorry I’m such a shitty person.” Chen said. Chanyeol nodded.

“Did you apologize for insulting Baekhyun?”

“Yes, and I apologize again because that whole rant was unnecessary and wrong. I don’t know what came over me.”

“Thanks for the apology. Now, I think we could all use a good night’s sleep. I hope we can start over and maybe be friends, whenever you’re ready for that.” Chanyeol responded. He grabbed a pillow from the closet that held the blankets and tossed it to Chen. 

Baekhyun wiped his nose on his sleeve, trying to look like he had never cried. Chanyeol looked over at that exact moment though, and caught Baekhyun in the act. 

“You got upset? Come here.” Chanyeol said, walking over to Baekhyun to pull Baekhyun into him. Their height difference was perfect for Baekhyun to just bury his head into his chest. They wrapped their arms around each other, and Baekhyun’s hands found themselves clenching fistfuls of Chanyeol’s shirt, while Chanyeol’s hands were softly rubbing Baekhyun’s back. 

“I don’t deserve you.” Baekhyun whispered, hoping Chanyeol might not have heard him. 

“You deserve more than me.” Chanyeol whispered back, the rumbling in his chest tickling Baekhyun’s cheeks. Baekhyun smiled and pulled out of the embrace. Chen had decided to focus intently on the floor, in order to avoid having to watch Baekhyun and Chanyeol. 

“Now that things have calmed down, let’s talk about what we need to do.” Chanyeol said loudly, attempting to quickly change the atmosphere of the room, “We have to leave, that much is sure. I say we go to the Arcanus Woods. Everyone has heard all kinds of rumors about that place, no one would ever come look for us there, and we could always fight off any animal that came our way, it wouldn’t be hard with powers like ours.” Chanyeol suggested. Chen was flustered at the change in pace, and his brain wasn’t keeping up with the change. 

“What?” He said dumbly, trying to catch up to the new tone. Baekhyun also felt confused by the change, but understood that Chanyeol was likely eager to get a plan in motion so they could move on to a new chapter of life that didn’t involve all this mess. 

“I’m saying we should go live in the Arcanus Woods.” Chanyeol repeated casually, as if it were a regular statement. Baekhyun gave him a sideways look.

“We can’t just live in the woods, we aren’t animals.” Baekhyun questioned.

“But we aren’t the same as humans either.” Chanyeol pointed out, “We probably would fit better in the woods because we can definitely beat out more of the threats. It’s easy to make a fire when I literally make fire with my hands on accident.” He let out a burst of fire to prove it, “It’ll be easy to cook food, and easy to kill it if you can just strike it with lightning, or just blind it and then catch it and kill it the usual way with a knife or something.” Chanyeol explained. 

“But what about jobs, and friends, and, you know, life.” Chen argued. 

Chanyeol nodded, “You see, I’ve tried that. I’ve moved a lot of times to new places and nothing good has really come of it. I eventually stopped making friends because eventually you’ll have to move again anyway. Also, you don’t need a job if you’re making your own food and shelter. Life-wise, we would have each other. I know it would suck but we can probably make it work.” Chanyeol shrugged. Baekhyun and Chen looked at each other with equally skeptical looks on their faces.

“Okay, I get it, you guys aren’t big fans of the idea. I personally think it’s the only option. How about we sleep on it, and then tomorrow if you guys have a better idea, we do that. If you don’t have a better idea we at least give the woods a trial run?” Chanyeol suggested, giving hopeful looks to both Baekhyun and Chen. 

“I’ll think about it.” Chen said, messing with the edge of one of the blankets on the couch. 

“Yeah, I’ll think about it. I mean, I don’t really have a better idea.” Baekhyun said, uncrossing his arms. 

Everyone started to settle into their sleeping places. There was odd eye contact between Chen and Baekhyun as Baekhyun went into Chanyeol’s room after Chanyeol, and Chen quickly looked away. Chen got settled on the couch with the blankets and got deep into his own thoughts. He had gone through a full emotional roller coaster, and regretted a lot of his actions. He really hoped Baekhyun would forgive him. Chen wasn’t really sure what love was since he had never dated, never really had a crush, but he knew Baekhyun meant the world to him. If he loved anyone, he definitely loved Baekhyun. His heart ached, as he knew Baekhyun would love him back, but not the way he desired. 

In Chanyeol’s room, things were more comfortable. Baekhyun was actually quite excited about sharing a bed with Chanyeol. They had been intimate in the sense of making out, but never anything like sharing a bed together. 

“I like your room.” Baekhyun commented lamely. Chanyeol laughed, noticing the lameness of Baekhyun’s comment. 

“Thanks.” He responded shortly. His room isn’t really anything special. He still has boxes in the corner to unpack, but he has a bed, and across from the bed is a dresser with a mirror on top that covers about a third of the wall. Other than those two objects, most everything is in boxes. 

“Never felt like unpacking?” Baekhyun asked, referencing the boxes. Chanyeol shrugged.

“I assumed I’d be moving away again pretty soon. If I haven’t unpacked it already it probably doesn’t matter much.” Chanyeol admitted. Baekhyun nodded. Chanyeol had sat on the bed and Baekhyun was standing awkwardly on the opposite side of the bed. 

“You seem a little uptight, everything alright?” Chanyeol asked, checking in with Baekhyun. Baekhyun rolled his shoulders back, stretching his neck.

“It’s been a stressful day to say the least. I mean, running away from police, having a super power infused fight with your best friend, figuring out you’re going to be living in the woods soon, I’ve had a long day.” Baekhyun laughed, “The weirdest part is that it doesn’t even feel that stressful when I talk about it with you.” Baekhyun stopped talking quickly, not liking the gushy feely turn the conversation had taken. He had had enough emotion for the day. 

“Aw, aren’t you just adorable Light Boy.” Chanyeol joked. Baekhyun rolled his eyes. He walked over to Chanyeol’s side of the bed and stood in front of him. Chanyeol grabbed his hands and held them, looking up at him from his position sitting on the edge of the bed. 

“Is this how you see me all the time? Like I’m gigantic?” Chanyeol asked jokingly. Baekhyun gave an angry pouting face.

“Hey watch the short-jokes. I could go make myself a pallet if I wanted.” Baekhyun threatened. They both knew it was an empty threat. Chanyeol just pulled Baekhyun’s hands down to bring their faces together. He brought their lips together sweetly, giving a loving kiss. 

Once they broke apart, Chanyeol spoke, “I still don’t like those hickies,” He lowered his voice and brought his face close to Baekhyun’s ear, “I could always make my own though, I suppose.” Baekhyun shivered as the feeling of want came over him quickly. 

“You know Chen’s just in the other room, right?” Baekhyun reminded cautiously. One of Chanyeol’s hands went to Baekhyun’s nape and ran through the short hair there.

“Then you’ll have to be quiet then. This was his mess anyway, I’m just fixing it.” Chanyeol spoke. Baekhyun cursed him in his head because he really knew how to use his voice to hit Baekhyun in just the right places. He felt like he could easily orgasm just from Chanyeol’s voice alone. 

“Wait a second.” Baekhyun said suddenly, unsure of his sudden hesitation. Chanyeol immediately backed off, removing his hands.

“Did I do something wrong?” Chanyeol asked, obviously worried he had pushed too hard. 

“No, no, I just, I’m just nervous. I don’t really do this. With… When this kind of thing happened before it wasn’t like… This is different. This means something to me. You mean something to me. I don’t usually have sex that means something. It’s making me nervous.” Baekhyun admitted, looking away from Chanyeol. Chanyeol felt his heart warm.

“That’s actually really sweet. Look, we can go at whatever pace you want, alright? We’ll call the shots together. If you don’t wanna do anything, we can just stop.” Chanyeol explained, rubbing Baekhyun’s arm. Baekhyun smiled at Chanyeol shyly.

“There’s something I wanna do for you. I don’t really do this, so you should feel pretty honored.” Baekhyun said, his cheeks already turning red. Chanyeol gave a suggestive wink, and Baekhyun gave him a quick kiss. Baekhyun’s hands pushed on the jeans that Chanyeol was wearing, and helped to undo the belt. 

“This is going to have to come off.” Baekhyun said, suddenly aware of the awkwardness of the whole interaction. Chanyeol went to stand up but ended up running straight into Baekhyun who had been leaning over to help take the pants off.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Chanyeol apologized, one hand holding his pants up loosely, the other holding Baekhyun’s face to see if there was an injury. 

“I’m fine! It’s fine.” Baekhyun reassured. They made eye contact and started laughing loudly. 

“Okay, so far so awkward, but we’ll get the hang of this eventually.” Chanyeol said, sliding his pants off the rest of the way. 

“Do I take my underwear off now? Or… later?” Chanyeol asked, obviously not very experienced with sexual encounters, despite his strong initiation. 

“You can go ahead and take it off, if you’re cool with that.” Baekhyun advised, trying to keep a cool demeanor about him. Chanyeol slid his underwear off per his instructions and then stood up straight, looking at Baekhyun awaiting further instruction. Baekhyun was distracted though by the pure size of Chanyeol’s package.

“Shit Chanyeol.” Baekhyun breathed, incredibly turned on. 

“Okay I’m liking your reaction but I’m also feeling super self-conscious.” Chanyeol said, his hands playing with the hem of his shirt. Baekhyun laughed, and then quickly undressed himself. He then pulled up Chanyeol’s shirt and threw it in the growing pile of clothing. 

“You started this so confidently though.” Baekhyun joked, running his hands along Chanyeol’s sides, admiring the definition of his body. 

“Well I felt confident at first because we’ve done the beginning part before, we’ve just never gotten this far.” Chanyeol explained, taking his time to admire Baekhyun’s figure. He had great hips, and his clothes apparently covered that up. 

“Man, how did I land someone so hot?” Chanyeol thought aloud.

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Baekhyun laughed, then his expression got serious, “Chanyeol I can’t apologize enough for how I’ve been treating you. You’ve been second place in my head, but you’re first now, I promise.” Chanyeol pulled Baekhyun in tightly, not bothered by their nakedness.

“I accept your apology, and I say we move on. Chen’s moving on from you, and I’m moving onto you.” Chanyeol pulled the same sexy move of getting close to Baekhyun’s ear, this time he got purposely too close so his lips were on Baekhyun’s ear, “And you can show me I’m first place.” Chanyeol said, his lips tickling Baekhyun’s neck and Baekhyun tried to pull away but Chanyeol’s grip was tight. Baekhyun giggled at Chanyeol’s goofiness. It showed that he was more than someone to have sex with, it wasn’t even about the sex, it was about the two of them together. 

“Take a seat on the edge of the bed then, if you’re ready to get on with it.” Baekhyun said, a lot of the awkwardness fading away. Chanyeol did as he was told, and sat down, looking at Baekhyun expectantly. Chanyeol was already half-hard just from expectation. Baekhyun reached out and started pumping Chanyeol’s dick, trying to get it harder. Chanyeol gasped at the contact and tensed up, but quickly relaxed again as he let the pleasure take him over. It was Baekhyun, it was his touch, it was his affection, and Chanyeol felt it all, and it felt right. 

Baekhyun hadn’t done a blowjob in a long time but he doubted he was too badly out of practice. He was used to rough treatment though, so he was hoping he could get that out of Chanyeol somehow. Once Chanyeol was hard enough for Baekhyun’s satisfaction, he got down on his knees, luckily the perfect height for his head to be at the correct place. 

“I like to do things pretty roughly, so feel free to just… use me I guess?” Baekhyun offered shyly. Chanyeol’s face went a shade darker in red.

“Um yeah, sure, alright. Should we have like a safe word or something?” Chanyeol asked.

“Well I won’t be able to talk much in just a second…” Baekhyun reminded with a little laugh, Chanyeol gave a nervous laugh as response, “But I’ll pinch you with three fingers on your… right thigh if things get too much. I doubt we’ll reach that point though.” Baekhyun said. Chanyeol nodded.

“Three finger pinch on the right, got it.” 

Baekhyun decided to go ahead and take a good lick of the head of Chanyeol’s penis. Chanyeol inhaled sharply, shocked by the intense feeling.

“Remember to be quiet, babe, Chen’s just outside.” Baekhyun reminded him in a bratty way. As if testing him, Baekhyun took in about half of Chanyeol’s length, sucking hard immediately. Chanyeol gave a choked off moan in response. The taste was weirder than he remembered but it didn’t deter him. Chanyeol was both longer and thicker than all of the people Baekhyun had been with before, most of them college flings. It was a new stretch for his mouth, but he loved the feeling. He had always liked rougher sex, and now he could barely get off if without at least a little roughness. He wasn’t sure he’d be getting off this first time with Chanyeol; he didn’t want to scare him off. He started bobbing up and down enthusiastically on Chanyeol’s cock, trying to get him to his full hardness. Chanyeol was quietly whispering profanities his hands balled up in the sheets of the bed, willing himself not to be too loud. 

Baekhyun put his hands over Chanyeol’s, moving them to his hair in order to remind him that he wanted this a little rough. Chanyeol seemed to get the hint and harshly grabbed onto Baekhyun’s hair, pulling roughly on his head in time with his bobbing. He wasn’t pulling him up his entire length, or properly face-fucking him, but Baekhyun figured they could work up to that. The hair pulling was good enough for Baekhyun for now. 

“Fuck, you’re so good at this.” Chanyeol breathed. Baekhyun hummed in appreciation, sending vibrations down Chanyeol’s cock, eliciting another moan from Chanyeol. Baekhyun pulled off of Chanyeol with a pop, pushing back against the motion of Chanyeol’s hands.

“Quiet.” Baekhyun reminded him with a raspy voice. Chanyeol nodded, his face showing how far gone he was, all red and blissed out. 

“And you can be rougher.” Baekhyun said, his voice scratchy. Chanyeol took that sentence and grabbed Baekhyun by the hair again, forcing him back to the blowjob. Baekhyun did as commanded and bobbed up and down again. This time Chanyeol took more initiative and started to pull Baekhyun up closer to the base of his dick, and holding him still for periods of time. He was getting more comfortable with that control, and Baekhyun was getting more and more turned on by it. Chanyeol pulled him almost to the hilt and held him there for a bit. Baekhyun sucked especially hard, rewarded by the usual whispered string of profanities. 

“I swear you were made for this.” Chanyeol whispered, “I’m gonna cum down your throat, fucking hell.” 

Baekhyun swirled his tongue as best he could to show his approval. He gave a quick hum and that sent Chanyeol over the edge. There was a lot of cum at one time and Baekhyun was struggling to swallow it all. His mouth was blocked off by Chanyeol’s dick so he choked. He kept trying to swallow but more continued to flow in. Chanyeol either didn’t notice or didn’t care about Baekhyun’s situation. Baekhyun could feel cum dribbling from the sides of his mouth, as his mouth couldn’t handle it all. 

“Shit, you choking on my dick feels so fucking good.” Chanyeol whispered. Baekhyun continued to swallow as best he could. Finally, Chanyeol released his hold on Baekhyun and Baekhyun spit up a little on accident, but swallowed the majority of the load. He sputtered as he tried to catch his breath. 

He then felt Chanyeol’s fingers wiping the sides of his mouth, collecting the cum that had escaped. 

“What’re-“ Baekhyun started to ask before coughing. Chanyeol looked questioningly at his fingers and then placed them into his mouth, sucking on them intensely. Baekhyun thought he was going to bust right then it was so sexy. 

“Was that too much?” Chanyeol asked Baekhyun, seeing if he was alright.

“No, that was perfect. And that last part with the fingers was a nice touch, a real turn on honestly.” Baekhyun admitted, clearing his throat a few times trying to get his voice back to normal. 

“Now I should take care of you, right?” Chanyeol asked, still not exactly sure how to go about this.

“Have you had sex before? I probably should have asked before now. But have you?” Baekhyun asked, curious if Chanyeol was a virgin.

“Well, to be honest, yes I’ve had sex before. But I’ve only had sex with women and only twice. Neither were very good times, I realize now it’s probably because I’m very gay.” Chanyeol revealed with a laugh. Baekhyun laughed too. 

“Alright well yeah we can deal with me next but if you think you’ll get hard again we could go all the way.” Baekhyun said. 

“I think I could go another round in a minute or two.” Chanyeol said, still breathing hard. 

They took the couple of minutes to talk about the plans they had been making before. Chanyeol mentioned how he was feeling drawn to the woods in a similar way he was drawn to Baekhyun. He felt sure they would be okay there. After explaining that sentiment, it didn’t take much convincing for Baekhyun to also think it was a good idea, and things would turn out all right. It felt reassuring to Baekhyun that they could have pillow talk like this and not feel weird after sex. It made him feel like he had really chosen the perfect person.

“I think I’m good to go now.” Chanyeol said, motioning toward his genitals. 

“You know I’m actually kinda tired now, babe. I still wanna get off, but I don’t want my ass to be sore when we’re hiking in the woods tomorrow, y’know?” Baekhyun even yawned at just the right moment to make his point.

“Well what do I need to do then?” Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun thought for a moment.

“You can always fix those hickies like you said you would.” Baekhyun advised. Chanyeol nodded enthusiastically, already moving his face to Baekhyun’s neck. He was gently tugging on Baekhyun’s dick while simultaneously covering all of Baekhyun’s fading hickies with his own new angry red ones. Baekhyun loved being marked, and the gentle friction on his dick just made the whole process almost relaxing. 

In no time at all, the three hickies Chen had left were completely renewed by Chanyeol, and he had even left a few of his own, one behind Baekhyun’s right ear, and two on his collarbones. He was now determined to have Baekhyun cum, pulling harder on Baekhyun’s dick. 

“I’m gonna try something too.” Chanyeol said as he lowered himself to be facing Baekhyun’s dick. He licked the head gingerly, and it was Baekhyun’s turn to choke off a moan in surprise. He then took the head of the throbbing dick into his mouth, and that combined with the hickies and the hand job he had been receiving was enough to get Baekhyun over the edge. Usually he required more than that to get off, but this was Chanyeol and Chanyeol was always the exception. Chanyeol’s face showed shock at the sudden flow in his mouth, but he quickly swallowed up every last drop as if it were water in a drought. Baekhyun loved the sight and quickly brought Chanyeol’s mouth up to his own for a make out session. 

“That was so great.” Baekhyun sighed as they settled under the covers finally.

“I’m glad everything went well. I thought I would be crazy nervous but I actually felt pretty good the whole time.” Chanyeol commented.

“And you’ll only get more and more confident.” Baekhyun reminded. Their faces flushed as they thought of possible future encounters. 

They lay together, Chanyeol having turned the lights off, snuggled closely, still naked. They were dirty, but planned to clean in the morning. Nothing could ruin the great mood they were in after feeling so loved by one another. 

“Tomorrow we go to the woods in search of a better future.” Chanyeol said solemnly.

“Well that was a dramatic change in tone.” Baekhyun noted with a laugh. He could hear Chanyeol laugh lightly in response; it was too dark to see his face well. 

“I was just thinking about it is all. I feel really good about it, and I feel really good about us. I love you, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol said, putting his arm around Baekhyun’s waist and pulling him closer.

“I love you too.” 

 

Getting out of Chanyeol’s apartment was a struggle for all of them. They must have gone out the front door just to walk back in for one “last” thing at least ten times. Chen was unusually quiet, but Baekhyun knew he couldn’t focus on his emotional friend much. Chen needed to sort through his emotions in his own time. They were back in the house at one point, taking a bathroom break when there was a thump at the door of the newspaper arriving. Chen grabbed it from the front step, still waiting on Baekhyun to finish up in the bathroom. 

He decided to go through the newspaper, trying to ignore the obvious post-sex glow of his companions, and the new and improved marks on Baekhyun as they walked around each other to grab things. They were all giggles and jokes and Chen felt like throwing up. Suddenly, a particular title grabbed his eye.

“Freeze Boy Back After All These Years?”

His heart skipped a beat as he remembered his dreams about a boy who froze things and wondered if maybe this meant he was a real person.

“Alright now it’s time to really head out.” Chanyeol announced, interrupting Chen’s thoughts. They grabbed their backpacks full of things and Chen set down the newspaper, not even fully reading the article. He felt partly intrigued, partly afraid.

They took the subway out of town, all the way to the outskirts. Once they got to the furthest station they followed Chanyeol’s guide toward the Arcanus Woods. The travel was taking longer than they expected and all of them were quickly losing their initial excitement about leaving. It was hot outside, they were getting tired, and they were getting hungry. Nothing was glamorous about running away, and they were quickly realizing this. They refused to acknowledge their discontent and only stopped moving once they were at the edge of the woods. 

“This doesn’t feel far enough away from the city.” Chen commented nervously, worried about being caught by police. 

“Well, if we end up needing something from civilization it won’t be too far away. Plus, no one’s gonna come in here, not with all the rumors and stuff.” Chanyeol shrugged. Chen sighed, knowing it was no use to try and fight Chanyeol, not when he would almost automatically get Baekhyun voting with him. 

“Time to go into the woods then.” Baekhyun said, trying to appear cheery. 

“Here’s for the best.” Chen grimaced as they pushed their way past the first layer of trees off the side of the empty highway. 

The woods were thick, and eerily dark despite the setting sun. Tall trees with expansive foliage blocked out lots of the sun, and the only lighting was highly concentrated slivers of beams that made a rusty spotlight for the layer of fallen leaves and dry dirt that caked the ground. The three boys made their way warily, unsure of what to expect, or even where they would stop. Chen wanted to be far away from the highway, but also was impatient and wanted to take a break from the endless walking. Chanyeol wanted a place that wouldn’t catch fire so easily, so maybe a clearing of some sort. Baekhyun wanted an expansive place, preferably more opened up to the sun. He was starting to understand why people made up such ridiculous stories about these woods. If he were drunk and dared to come in here, the way many stories of this place began, he definitely would have seen a monster or two, and definitely some water-creature that supposedly ruled the forest. It was that freaky.

They were silent for hours, unable to think of conversation topics that wouldn’t weary them anymore than they were, and that all three would enjoy speaking about together. Chen wanted several times to talk to Baekhyun about his relationship with Chanyeol but refused to do so in the presence of Chanyeol because of his obvious influence over the shorter boy. Baekhyun wanted to talk individually with Chanyeol about their intimacy the night before, just to get reassurance that things went as well as he was remembering. Chanyeol was really the only one relishing the silence, much preferring it to the chaos of the previous night. 

Chen was just about to speak up and ask what Chanyeol’s plan was exactly when he tripped and fell to his knees. Baekhyun and Chanyeol quickly turned to see if he was all right. The sun was completely set, so Baekhyun created a ball of light in order to see if Chen was okay.

“You alright?” Baekhyun asked, using his mind to move the ball over toward Chen slightly, to see Chen start to stand and dust off his pants. 

“Yeah I just tripped over something is all.” He said, trying to ignore the stinging marks on the palms of his hands. Chanyeol made his way over to see if there had been an unusual obstruction of some sort. 

“It’s just some kind of stick.” Chen said picking up the piece of log that he tripped over. Chanyeol looked at it suspiciously.

“It looks burned.”

“Well you would know.” Chen joked, receiving silence.

“This thing was definitely burned. Are there others like it around?” He asked, obviously getting some idea into his head. 

“I don’t see any.” Chen admitted, turning his eyes to the ground to look. Baekhyun moved the light more over to Chen, choosing to stay where he was and watch from afar. Honestly, Baekhyun was just exhausted. He had spent a lot of emotional and physical energy in the past few days and this trek through a dark forest wasn’t exactly helping so he figured Chanyeol could look for burned sticks by himself. 

“Why do burned sticks matter?” Baekhyun asked, trying not to let annoyance show in his voice.

“I didn’t burn it. No one would come in this far to camp out, there are too many warnings about this area. If someone created a fire and then hid it they don’t want to be found out. I don’t think we’re the only runaways here.” Chanyeol reasoned, looking stoic as he tried to think through what that meant for their group. 

“You mean there’s other people in these woods?” Baekhyun asked, a rush of adrenaline going through him as he felt the need to fight these possible lurkers in the forest. 

“Most likely. This was probably burned a night or two ago. Someone else is definitely in here. At least one.” Chanyeol was in full survivalist leader mode, looking around sharply for other possible signs of people.

“Baekhyun can find them if they’re here.” Chen pointed out, glancing to Baekhyun. Baekhyun gave Chen an angry look and Chanyeol just looked confused.

“Huh?”

“Chen I swear to God.” Baekhyun swore, getting rid of his ball of light in frustration. Some things he didn’t want to have to relive.

“Wait, you can find someone? How?” Chanyeol wanted clarification, and he was also annoyed Chen knew something about Baekhyun he didn't. 

“He’s done it before, once. We were younger and I got lost at a party in a hotel. Baek-“

“No, you got shit-faced drunk, angry, and stormed off, literally, at a party.” Baekhyun corrected, “He was legit with the fucking thunder clouds and everything but everyone else was so drunk they didn’t even really notice or care. He was really angry so he went somewhere else in the hotel. It was one of those giant hotels with like 40 floors, a penthouse, a gym, and all the works. I couldn’t find him anywhere and I panicked…” Baekhyun trailed off. 

“And then?” Chanyeol prodded, still not understanding what this had to do with anything they had just been discussing.

“And then after searching a bunch of floors he flashed throughout the whole hotel and then he knew where I was. Everyone thought there was some giant photo being taken, and others thought their lights were broken. I don’t know what happened exactly but he found me in no time.” Chen explained, “So he could do that here in the forest, flash and then find who else is in here.”

“No. I don’t think I can do that.” Baekhyun said firmly, balling his fists.

“Why not?” Chen pushed.

“I didn’t mean to find you when I did Chen, I was just scared and the powers happened all on their own, it was before I had really worked with them much to figure out what I could do. It wasn't just a flash, it was me. I accidentally became a trillion and more particles of light that surged out looking for you, or your specific light anyway, everyone has one. Light can only see light so that’s what I had to look for. It’s terrifying, it’s fast, it’s hard to control, and it feels so freeing it’s hard to make all the particles come back to make me again.” Baekhyun explained, “Light doesn’t like to be controlled, it likes to shine out, do it’s own thing. The moment I become light like that, I do too. I was so scared about what I was doing at the time that I immediately shot back to being me, but I’m worried about the second time. “

“Well you don’t have to.” Chanyeol said, understanding his concern, “I would definitely want you to come back in one piece.” He gave a sympathetic smile, which Baekhyun returned shyly.

“Come on guys, we need to know if we’re alone in here. It’ll take two seconds, maybe less. We could be in real danger. You just have to flash in, flash out. It’ll help you learn to control things. Plus, if we know the enemy before they know us, we have the advantage.” Chen argued.

“That’s easy to say when it’s not you who’s splitting into a gazillion pieces.” Baekhyun scoffed back.

“I become lightning, Baek. It’s not that different.”

“Yeah but when have you ever done that?”

“Just once, on accident, but it was thrilling, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

“But you haven’t”

“I haven’t needed to.”

“You’re annoying, Chen.”

Chen winked in response, “So are you gonna do it? Are you going to potentially save our lives or are we going to have to do this the old fashion way? Honestly Baekhyun I think you’ll do it for the thrill of it. You can never be fast enough, or bright enough.”

“I personally would like Baekhyun in one piece.” Chanyeol butted in, “Baekhyun, don’t feel forced to do this, we can manage ourselves.”

Baekhyun thought for a moment. He loved light, it was his to control and understand. He wasn’t trying to avoid it at all. He didn’t want to become obsessed with it though, and flashing like that felt like a high to him. He wanted to help his friends but was worried about his ability to resist the temptation of staying light.

“I’ll do it.” He tried to convince himself it was in order to help his friends but in reality he knew it was because, like Chen said, it was about that thrill. He could feel his body becoming aware of what he was about to do and it wanted it. 

The other boys stayed quiet, unsure of what Baekhyun needed to do activate his power.

“Awkward side effect, but turning into light means that clothes don’t stay on the light, so if you guys could turn around for a second while I do this that would be great.” Baekhyun said, starting to focus his energy. The two boys politely did as told and waited. 

It was bright, blinding white, the kind of white that you imagine when you die where people meet angels. Even closing your eyes did nothing against the brightness of the light. Chanyeol and Chen cried out in surprise and pain, falling to the ground. 

Far above the ground, tiny particles of Baekhyun were flying as fast as light can travel in every direction. Two seconds meant they could cover countless miles, and Baekhyun had to use his strength of will to keep them contained so such a small area as the Arcanus Woods. Light sought out other light, but in the dark of the new fallen night the only other light came from reflection off of humans and other creatures. The light sought out, and it found. There were many of them, some separate, some in groups, none human. The light from humans was different from the light from people like Baekhyun. These were all people like Baekhyun, people with supernatural abilities.

There was a strong pulling sensation Baekhyun felt somewhere in his subconscious, as though someone were tugging on him. When he focused on the tug, the light could sense Chanyeol more than the rest of the people around, and was centered on him like the gravitational pull of a sun. It wanted to spread but was kept pulled in by that special light that came from Chanyeol.

Baekhyun gasped as he came back to his body. He was gasping for breath, and felt as though he had just come up for air after being underwater for too long. He fell down to his hands and knees, dizzy and nauseous. 

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol shouted, getting up from the ground to go over to him, his eyes still temporarily blinded from the flash. Chen moved to do the same, but wasn’t as fast. 

Baekhyun caught his breath quickly, and grabbed at his clothes that had fallen on the ground. He stumbled through dressing himself awkwardly and messily. There were leaves all in his clothing and he couldn’t seem to put on his pants properly because he kept falling over. Chanyeol rubbed his eyes, finally able to see more shapes and figures and saw Baekhyun stumbling to try and clothe himself.

“Let me help.” Chanyeol said, blinking furiously to try and get his sight back completely. Baekhyun whimpered, tired out from using his powers. Chen turned around to help but Chanyeol told him not to look. 

Chanyeol took Baekhyun’s shirt from his hands and dusted it off, ridding it of the leaves that stuck to it. His sight coming back quickly, he helped Baekhyun into an upright position and pulled leaves off of him too. He slowly and kindly helped him dress, calmly brushing off leaves and keeping him upright. Chen kept his head down, feeling more useless and more like a third wheel than ever before. 

“There are two groups.” Baekhyun breathed out, letting Chanyeol put one of his sleeves over his arm. Chanyeol nodded.

“Take your time.”

“There’s a group not far from here, there’s three of them, like us.” Baekhyun says choppily. He points off in a direction, and Chanyeol just nods understandingly. 

“We’re not doing anything until you’re able to walk. Give me your other arm.” Chanyeol said, helping with the other side of the shirt, and buttoning it properly. Baekhyun stayed quiet until he was fully clothed. He stood up straight, having regained most of his breath. 

“That was insane.” He laughed maniacally; Chen couldn’t help but notice the dark tone in his voice. Chen turned around, taking that as his cue to join back in. 

“So there are others here then?” Chen asked, fully taking in just how exhausted Baekhyun looked, his dark circles like black eyes. 

“Two groups, one of them has made a place just a little ways from here- er, well it felt like a little ways from here, I was also moving as fast as light but it was close. Then there’s a more interesting group a little further away that I think we should investigate after we visit the first group. Everyone in both groups is like us, they give off our kind of light. I think they have powers like us.” Baekhyun explained.

“Do you think you want to go investigate like this? Do you feel up to it? It might mean a fight.” Chanyeol warned. Baekhyun nodded tiredly, his curiosity outweighing his exhaustion.

“They seemed to be sitting, it was hard to tell, they were huddled, maybe sleeping? Maybe just getting cozy? I’m not sure.” Baekhyun tried to remember it all but the memories were getting fuzzier and fuzzier like a dream he had just woken up from.

“There’s a group of 4 further in the woods, there’s a clearing there.” Baekhyun explained, already walking toward where he knew the first group was.

“Hey take it slow. We’ll find them. Let me help you.” Chanyeol offered. Baekhyun shook his head, refusing his help.

“I’m fine.”

This confused Chen because it seemed like Baekhyun was avoiding being too near Chanyeol now that he had a better handle on himself. Chen wasn’t about to step in and say anything about it though.

They began walking, following Baekhyun’s lead. Baekhyun would stumble occasionally and if Chanyeol (who was walking directly behind him like a concerned shadow) tried to reach out to steady him he would refuse the helping hand. Something about that tug when he was in the air unsettled him. It was like his entire being had decided that Chanyeol was as important if not more than Light itself. It made Baekhyun feel less in control. Not to mention it had been his focus on Chanyeol that had prevented him from floating off into particles like he secretly wished he could do.

Chen’s legs were numb and he felt like a ghost, following around the couple. He wished for nothing more than a good sleep but the night seemed like it would be a long one. Baekhyun was walking in a drunken fashion, determined in mind despite his exhausted body, this caused Chanyeol much stress. Chen could see it in every fiber of Chanyeol’s body, as if he were a living question mark. Why is he not accepting my help? What happened to him when he flashed? Why is he pushing himself so hard? These questions were easily legible in the folds of frustration on his brow. It was tiring Chen, and he was just a spectator.

As the continued on though, Chen found himself moving forward with a little more energy, as though there were some magnetic force helping him to move along.  
“Close... close…” Baekhyun breathed softly. Just as they took one more step forward after that comment there was a voice.

“Who is that? Who are you?” A voice shouted, obviously having heard the boys’ footsteps.

“We don’t mean any harm!” Chen spoke up, “We want to talk to you.” 

The boys stopped moving, and almost stopped breathing as they waited in the dark for a response.

“We will talk.” The voice responded, “Show yourselves.” 

The boys walked more forward and found themselves in a manmade clearing. Baekhyun created a small, rather pathetic ball of light to show their way, causing the voice to gasp, as well as two new voices. Chen, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun then noticed the manmade clearing had been created by knocking down several trees and bushes by force. 

“You’re like us.” One of the new voices said, this one attached to a stern-faced, young looking boy. 

“Yes we are, and we came looking for you.” Baekhyun explained, he went to take a step forward and teetered. Chanyeol caught him and set him upright again, receiving a glare as thanks. 

“Are you okay?” A third new voice asked, this one a very intense featured face whose voice didn’t fit the hardness of the face. 

“He’s being stubborn. He wanted to find you all despite his obvious exhaustion. He said there’s more like us as well and he wants to find them too.” Chen explained, not hesitating to fill in the strangers. Odd circumstances lead to odd behavior.

“And what? You think we’d want to go with you? Yeah right.” The original voice said to Chen. He had been to the side of Chen so they had not looked directly at each other yet, but Chen turned to face him when he heard his voice. They gasped simultaneously.

“Ice Boy?”

“Lightning Strike?”

The two said simultaneously. They stared at each other in awe.

“Have you two met before?” Chanyeol asked, his eyes darting only for split seconds away from Baekhyun to see the rest of the scene. 

“No.” They again said simultaneously.

“This is that guy you said you kept dreaming about?” The youngest looking boy said, standing up not from where he had been sitting next to the edgy looking boy. 

“Shut up.” 

There was a pause.

“Okay, as freaky as this is, I still can’t just trust you out of nowhere.” Ice Boy said, blinking quickly and looking away from Chen’s faded face in Baekhyun’s dim light. 

“I think we should all introduce ourselves, we may not band together. We came out here to escape persecution, and you may well be that persecution. I don’t plan to just be making friends willy nilly.” Ice Boy crossed his arms, waiting for Chen’s group to start introductions first.

“I’m Chen, although I like Lightning Strike to be honest. I can control, kinda, lightning.” Chen said casually, and then pointed over to Baekhyun.

“That’s Baekhyun, he’s exhausted so I’m not gonna let him introduce himself. He can control light. Usually it’s a lot more impressive he’s just a little off his game right now.” Chen continued and then motioned to Chanyeol for him to introduce himself.

“I’m Chanyeol, I do stuff with fire.” He said shortly, his attention still focused on Baekhyun.

“I’m Sehun, I can do stuff with wind.” Sehun said, mimicking the way Chanyeol had introduced himself.

The edgy boy stood up, “I’m Tao, I have some control over time.”

“I, Ice Boy,” He said with a sarcastic tone and flair of his fingers,” am Xiumin. I freeze stuff.”

They all stood awkwardly after their introductions unsure of what to do next.

“Now what?” Sehun asked aloud.

“You said there were more of us somewhere? How do you know?” Xiumin spoke up to Baekhyun.

“I flashed.” He breathed shortly, wanting to quickly move on to the next group so he could finally get some rest and peace.

“You were the reason for that crazy bright light? No wonder you’re tired.” Tao sympathized giving a pout, “I can tire myself like that too. Time is a heavy beast.”

“Where are the others like us?” Xiumin asked curiously. Baekhyun waved off in the direction of the clearing he remembered.

“Prove it.” Sehun challenged. 

“I’m not sure he’ll be able to do that.” Chanyeol said, becoming adamant that Baekhyun take a rest.

“No, I can prove it, let’s go.” Baekhyun said shortly and began walking. He wanted this over with. He wanted to find everyone he had sought out earlier and then sleep for weeks. Everyone was shocked by Baekhyun’s immediate acceptance of the challenge, even the challenger himself. They all began to follow, intrigued by Baekhyun’s forwardness.

“How did the flash show him where we were?” Sehun asked Chen, since Chanyeol seemed preoccupied in dealing with the quickly deteriorating Baekhyun.

“He turned himself into light in order to search the forest for other people, or more precisely, other people’s light. It’s what he is so exhausted. Apparently people who have powers show different light, that’s how he knew you guys were like us.” Chen explained. It was odd to him. For some reason, he, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun seemed to be getting along with the other group quite well for having just met. They were rarely so friendly with strangers, but when you meet other people with powers in the dangerous mysterious dark woods Chen supposed it made sense to be friends fast. 

“What persecution are you guys running from? We’re running too. We got into some legal issues after a fight or two.” Chen summarized. 

“Well Xiumin’s got cold hands. He accidentally freezes things a lot, and we thought he had gotten over that but then something dramatic happened and he froze a whole house. It made it all over the news, so here we are.” Sehun motioned to the thick woods around them.

“Hey, Baekhyun, is there an end to this hike? I don’t really do-“ Tao began.

“If you don’t shut up, I’m blinding you.” Baekhyun interrupted. He was not in any kind of mood to be messed with, or even talked to for that matter.

“He’s not normally like that.” Chanyeol defended, “And also shut up about the distance, you agreed to come so just deal with it.” 

Tao huffed, and got a comforting shoulder touch from Sehun.

“So ya’ll are a thing?” Sehun asked, motioning between Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“Yeah, we’re dating.” Chanyeol said shortly, going to try and help Baekhyun move forward but Baekhyun swatted his hand away.

“Yeah ya’ll look close.” Tao said sarcastically. Chanyeol just sighed.

“Okay this is a creepy way to start a conversation but I’ve had dreams about you.” Chen said to Xiumin. Xiumin eyed him curiously.

“Me too.” Xiumin replied.

“What do you think that means? Doesn’t that usually mean something?” Chen asked, trying to get a good look at Xiumin. Xiumin just shrugged noncommittally.

“I don’t know.” He shut down the conversation quickly, not keen on being close to someone new. It was obvious Chen cared much more than Xiumin so Chen gave up and decided to walk on silently, his hands swaying uselessly at his sides.

After about a half hour of walking, they came upon a very large clearing in the middle of the woods, with an open sky and everything. The group could even see the stars. 

“You made it.” A whole new voice. The group went to identify the face, but Baekhyun’s light went out. The group heard a thump noise as Baekhyun fell into Chanyeol’s waiting arms. 

“Out like a light.” Chanyeol said, gritting through his teeth.

“It’s nice to see so many new couplings. Some of you appear very new to each other!” The voice said with excitement. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Sehun said, “Are you like us? Are you special? That’s really what we came here for.”

“Oh yes, we’re all very special, come in! All of you. We have a place that coupling can recover.” The voice said, and they all realized there was a dim light coming from an actual house in the middle of this clearing. They were all dumbfounded, but went in nonetheless. They had nothing to lose, and so much to gain from a nice bed if they should be allowed it, or god willing, a shower. Desperation is often the strongest motivation.

The voice that had welcomed them was a very smooth and proper man who announced their arrival as soon as they stepped into the threshold of the home.

“The others have finally arrived!” 

It was met with cheering and three others came from places around the house. 

“I’m Suho. I am the unofficial leader of our little camp out here. This is Lay, he’s my coupling. This is Kai, and Kyungsoo, they are also couplings.” Suho introduced quickly. They all were extremely excited to see the group, waving when their names were called, and their eyes were scanning each of the new group intently.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on here?” Xiumin asked, taking the words right out of everyone else’s mouths.

“Oh yes, I'm sure you’re very confused. We’ve just been waiting for you all for so long it feels like you already know! We are like you. My domain is water, Lay’s is healing, Kai’s is teleportation, and Kyungsoo’s is Strength. We’ve been figuring out the ins and outs of our powers and our relationships for a while now which is the difference between us and you all. We have knowledge, but don’t worry we can’t wait to educate you!” Suho began to explain. Chanyeol cut off the rest of his speech to bring attention back to the unconscious Baekhyun.

“Healing, you said? That’s perfect, can someone take care of Baekhyun?” Chanyeol practically begged. The man named Lay got up immediately.

“If I had seen him earlier I would have helped! I’m so sorry.” He apologized, setting his pale hands on Baekhyun’s forehead and chest. He closed his eyes in a peaceful manner. The rest of the group was quiet, curious to watch this power in action.

“I can only do a bit, most of it is power exhaustion. I can take away a little bit but he really just needs rest.” Lay diagnosed. He then pushed down where his hands lay for a couple moments and Baekhyun’s eyes fluttered open once again. He made eye contact with Chanyeol and a myriad of mixed emotions crossed his eyes.

“Aw, what an adorable confused coupling.” Suho said, giving Baekhyun some serious weird vibes, especially considering how disconcerted he was. 

“Coupling?” Baekhyun choked out, deciding that was the most important question out of the one million he had to ask. 

“Oh yes! A coupling is a destined pair. Each of us infused with domain over a particular element or power also has a destined pair which we call a coupling, and reference each other as such. We’re still figuring out all the details of couplings, but we know that powers work better around your coupling, your energy goes up, you’re drawn to them like gravity, I’m sure you’ve noticed that at least by now, and you never lose that connection.” Suho explained. He then recapped for Baekhyun the names and powers of each of the people at the table. The 6 new visitors to the house then introduced themselves shyly giving their own powers. Each introduction got a round of applause from the group of four, who could not contain their excitement about meeting everyone.

“Welcome everyone. It is so nice to have all of you here.” Kai said, the first words anyone had heard him say.

“Yes! We have enough beds for each coupling, so I’ll show you to those. I can see you’re tired and need time to adjust.” Kyungsoo added, pointing in the direction of the long hallway behind the living room. 

“Beds?” Tao asked expectantly.

“Yes! Where else would you be sleeping?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Well my bed’s been the ground for about a week. I shouldn’t trust you because I don’t know you but I want a bed so bad.” Tao whined. Kyungsoo ignored the odd commentary with a blink. Sehun followed Kyungsoo and the near-tears Tao to their specific bedroom. Kai then gathered Chanyeol and Baekhyun and took them to their own room. Lay and Suho were then left with Chen and Xiumin.

“So you guys don’t have a coupling bond yet, we can tell.” Lay announced blandly.

“We’re a coupling?” Chen asked, sure that could not be correct. He had only ever loved Baekhyun, not this random guy who had shown up in his dreams.

“I'm sure it’s awkward right now, but it won’t be for long! Let me show you to your room.” Lay said, guiding them back into the hallway.

“We are not sleeping in the same bed.” Xiumin announced once Lay simply dropped them off, with no further explanation or comments other than “breakfast will be served in the morning!”

“Please don’t make me sleep on the floor.” Chen pleaded, his body yearning to sleep on the cozy bed. 

“I’m not gonna sleep on the floor.”

“Then let’s just sleep on the bed together. It’s only weird if you make it weird.”

“No it’s just already weird.”

“If you’re weirded out by it then you can be the one to sleep on the floor.”

“I already said I’m not gonna sleep on the floor.”

“Then we’re stuck! We both have to sleep in the bed. I won’t even touch you dude, I just want to sleep.” Chen rolled his eyes; he took off his pants and shirt, staying in just his boxers to go to sleep. He then started to get under the covers.

“You’re annoying.” Xiumin said, but Chen could see a little bit of red tinting his cheeks. 

“Oh. You think I’m hot.” Chen bragged, giving a smirk and a wink. It was Xiumin’s turn to roll his eyes. 

“Don’t make me freeze you.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

They talked a little back and forth and Xiumin eventually got comfortable enough to climb into the bed in his own underwear in order to go to sleep. 

“So I heard that something dramatic happened to you that made you run away into the woods. Would you be willing to tell me what happened?” Chen asked boldly, feeling more comfortable with Xiumin quite quickly.

“I shouldn’t tell you, but I actually kind of want to. I mean I’m surprised that you would literally choose one of the most personal questions to ask me, but I’ll just pretend like that’s normal like I’ve been doing the rest of the night.” Xiumin prefaced, making Chen laugh as he related to the sentiment entirely, “It had to do with my parents. They never liked my taste in friends, Sehun and Tao. When I was younger they would lock my doors to try and keep me from leaving the house at night to go meet them. They would take away my phone, sometimes delete my contacts so I couldn’t text them even when I got it back. Those times made me angry, but this last time was the worst.” A deep breath, “You know, the story really gets me upset so I’d rather not finish it.” Xiumin chickened out.

“Oh come on, you were right at the good part!” Chen joked, “I understand though. I made a serious mistake the other day in sleeping with my best friend who was already in a relationship because I thought that they would love me more. It led to this ugly falling out and things are better but now I just feel empty and sad.” Chen admitted, his tone changing somberly.

“They told me they would disown me if I stayed friends with them. I had never been so angry. I couldn’t believe the lengths they would go to just to keep me from something that made me happy. My emotions took over and the house was ice.” Xiumin finished quickly, having taken Chen’s opening up as inspiration to finish his own story.

“Well I’ve got shitty parents too. My dad was so shitty he never even came into my life.” Chen laughed, “So I totally understand that.”

The pair chatted a little bit more, opening up about little details of themselves, and life stories. They were tired but their chat was filled with curious energy. Chen slept better than he had in his entire life.

“Is everything okay Baekhyun? You seem angry at me.” Chanyeol said, tucking himself into the bed with Baekhyun. Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a sad look.

“It’s mostly that I’m just really tired.”

“And what’s the part that’s not ‘mostly’ then?” Chanyeol asked, catching Baekhyun’s choice in words.

“I love being light. It’s the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever experienced and it’s the most freeing. This time though, your light pulled on me like a rope almost. I was held down and that felt weird to me. It felt like suddenly you mattered to me more than light did. I mean, I know you matter more than light, I just can’t get my head around it and it’s weird.” Baekhyun said, throwing his arms up in frustration at his own emotions.

“I was your gravity?” Chanyeol clarified.

“Yeah, as I got further away, the light wanted more to center on you instead.” Baekhyun tried to explain.

“I think something similar has happened with me. When we would communicate back and forth in the window, back in the beginning of our time together, my fire would actually listen to me. Before I moved here it often was uncontrollable. I would try to make a tiny burst of light and I would blow something to smithereens. Sometimes the reverse would be the case. Once I met you though, it was like my fire died down a little, it didn’t have the intensity of before but it had more control and the finesse.” Chanyeol explained, “I think these are good changes. We’re now better able to control ourselves. It’s okay if you have to adjust, I understand, just try not to be too mad at me.” Chanyeol kissed Baekhyun’s cheek.

“Hey Chanyeol.” Baekhyun said, reassured by Chanyeol’s words that he really did love Chanyeol.

“Yes Baekhyun?”

“Do you want to finish what we started at your place?” He asked randomly, “That healing gave me some energy back so I might as well use it.”

“In someone else’s bed? You’re kinky, Baek.” Chanyeol smirked, not opposed to the idea.

“We could always just go back to sleep if you’re too chicken.” Baekhyun teased. Chanyeol wasn’t about to turn down such a scandalous offer though.

Things quickly became a mess limbs, teeth, tongue, moans, groans, and lips. Chanyeol was all over Baekhyun, and Baekhyun returned each and every motion with his own. They were mirroring each other in sentiment, emotion, and physicality. Their weariness was quickly forgotten as they found solace in the touch of the other. 

“Wait,” Chanyeol breathed, breaking the motion of their actions, “What are we going to do without any lube?” He asked, concerned. Baekhyun looked away shyly.

“I may have brought some in my bag.” He admitted. Chanyeol’s jaw dropped.

“You had a bag of stuff to bring into the woods for survival and lube was something you brought with you?” Chanyeol asked incredulously. Baekhyun smiled with embarrassment. 

“I just thought I might need it.” He tired to play off casually, as if it was an obvious necessity to bring along into the woods. Baekhyun unwrapped himself from Chanyeol and grabbed the lube out of his bag.

“You’re unbelievable and I love you.” Chanyeol laughed.

“I love you too, and you should be glad I thought to bring it.” Baekhyun pointed out.

“Oh I am.” He wiggled his eyebrows in a goofy manner that had Baekhyun laughing loudly.

They quickly regained their rhythm, except one of Chanyeol’s lubed fingers found itself near Baekhyun’s asshole. Baekhyun was not as shocked at the entrance as he thought he would be, and he found the feeling quite pleasing. Everything happening between them seemed so natural, as if it had been rehearsed. 

Kisses on necks, sweet words whispered in ears, light moans, hands gripping soft skin, hickies on shoulders, and sweat moving on sweat all felt like a movie-moment Baekhyun and Chanyeol were being able to experience. Baekhyun thought he could only be turned on in rough sex, but that seemed to be true of everyone except Chanyeol. Once again, Chanyeol was always the exception.

Preparation time was coming to an end, finally. Baekhyun could feel Chanyeol’s concern for his well being in the way he carefully stretched Baekhyun.

“I’m ready.” Baekhyun said lowly to Chanyeol. Chanyeol took his position behind Baekhyun who was on his hands and knees on the bed. He entered slowly, feeling every movement of Baekhyun’s ass on his cock.

“Damn, and I thought your mouth was good.” Chanyeol moaned. Baekhyun adored the feeling of the stretch and hoped that Chanyeol would start to move soon. As if aware of his wishes, Chanyeol began moving quickly inside Baekhyun, beginning to focus on the release part of the whole process. 

“I want- to see- your face.” Chanyeol said in between thrusts. He paused his thrusting for a moment to pull out and have Baekhyun climb into his lap and face him. It was an awkward position but Chanyeol wanted to see Baekhyun in his blissed out state. Baekhyun had one hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder, to hold himself up, and the other was pumping his own dick in order to reach his own end. 

They pumped together like that for some time before they began to feel the end coming. In whispered groans of each other’s names they came at the same time. They collapsed down on the bed, opening their eyes to take in the post-sex look of the other. They made eye contact and laughed.

“We’re gonna have to clean this mess in the morning.” Chanyeol pointed out. Baekhyun waved off the comment.

“M’ too tired to think o’that now.” Baekhyun mumbled, already snuggling into Chanyeol’s chest, ready to finally go to bed. 

“We’re all gross!” Chanyeol protested. Baekhyun just rubbed his head cutely into Chanyeol’s chest to shake his head no.

“Alright fine, but we do have to clean up in the morning.”

All the boys woke up in the morning to the smell of food cooking, and everyone zombie-walked out like moths to a flame. Baekhyun and Chanyeol quickly dressed themselves in all new clothes, and after stumbling to find the bathroom they did some improvised cleaning of sheets in the sink and quick showers for themselves. 

Apparently Lay was a truly gifted cook. He was able to make the most delicious breakfast they boys had ever tested. Chen was taking a delectable bite of toast, a hand resting on Xiumin’s thigh. Baekhyun noticed the affection and felt relieved they had started to come together. He pointed out the slight hint of affection to Chanyeol who just gave Baekhyun a discreet thumbs up. Sehun and Tao came in later than everyone else, and Baekhyun was shocked how obvious it was they had been having sex. He knew he shouldn’t judge since he and Chanyeol had done the same, but they were just so shameless about it.

“Well looks like some of us had quite a good night.” Xiumin commented. Tao blushed shyly but Sehun gave finger guns to the table and put a fist in the air as if victorious.

“Stop that, you’re literally the most embarrassing person.” Tao complained. Sehun laughed, and kissed the bed-head sporting Tao. 

“I’m glad everyone’s settling in well!” Suho said, “Tonight we’re going to have a bonfire. Chanyeol would you mind helping with that?” 

“I can totally help! Fire’s my specialty.” 

“I think that’s why he asked you, dimwit.” Baekhyun teased. Chanyeol ignored the comment, and instead ran his thumb over the hickey that was fading behind one of Baekhyun’s ears. The motion made Baekhyun shiver.

“Dimwit?” Chanyeol challenged.

“Never mind.”

The table laughed, having witnessed the interaction. Baekhyun was looking forward to the bonfire that night and being able to get to know this group of people better.

The bonfire came faster than Baekhyun expected. Sehun blamed Tao for pushing time to go faster, but Tao claimed he had “left the beast alone today”, which Baekhyun found funny. He couldn’t imagine having such a power, it sounded tiring. They all found themselves sitting on logs around the fire, each sitting with their coupling. Xiumin and Chen were still obviously courting one another, and Chen was currently pulling away a bit, apparently uncomfortable with getting close to someone so quickly. They had a little tiff earlier in the day about nicknames they could give each other, and Chen was still mad about it. He didn’t appreciate the humor in “quick finish” joke Xiumin had made, and Xiumin didn’t appreciate Chen’s comment that Xiumin would have to test him to find out. The other couples knew the fight wouldn’t last. The two had been talking to everyone else, asking how they should apologize, so they obviously cared for each other.

“Someone is going to have to go out for groceries with Kai tomorrow. He’ll just transport you to the store with him and then he can transport the groceries back, but he might need some helping hands.” Suho announced in between anecdotes at the bonfire Chanyeol had helped create.

“I’ll go with him.” Sehun offered, “I’ve always wanted to teleport.”

Kai laughed, “It’s not as exciting as you might be thinking it will be.”

“Whatever, I would just use it to pop right behind people to scare them. I bet sex is hilarious.” Sehun laughed as he imagined some odd scenario of a transporting lover.

Kai popped directly behind Sehun silently and then leaned down to his ear.

“Don’t get any weird ideas.” Kai whispered. Sehun screamed, and everyone laughed at the situation.

Baekhyun leaned against Chanyeol, he was so calm in the atmosphere. He may not know all these people super well yet but he knew he would soon. They could face problems together, as a group.

“How did we get so lucky?” Baekhyun asked rhetorically to Chanyeol. Chanyeol shrugged.

“I like to think you lit the way for all this happiness.”

**Author's Note:**

> Mods' Notes: During the duration of BAE2016, we're kindly asking you to leave your reviews on [Livejournal](http://baeconandeggs.livejournal.com/33177.html). Thank you for reading!♥


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